Reporter's Notebook: Exploring Hotel Emma's history
Send this to a friend
- Stephanie Guzman
- Reporter- San Antonio Business Journal
- Email | LinkedIn | Twitter
One of the things I love about San Antonio is all its old and historic buildings. From where I grew up in Southern California, most of our oldest structures are farmhouses from the early 1900s. It was rare to see a huge building from that time period, as Ventura County didn't see its population boom until after World War II.
So to work at the historic Pearl Brewery — San Antonio Business Journal's offices are at Pearl's Full Goods Building — is a real treat. Almost every day I walk by Pearl Stables with the year 1894 proudly displayed.
As a history buff, I love looking at an old buildings and pondering the people that once inhabited them. Jeffrey Fetzer, the preservation architect for Pearl Brewery, is the same way.
We're the type of people who get excited about hidden pocket doors and yes — original archways. Fetzer said he found amazing architectural elements while building Hotel Emma.
"We found artifacts and interesting details during early construction" of Hotel Emma, Fetzer said. "We found an archway between buildings that had been covered up for decades."
You can read my interview with Fetzer here.
Part of Fetzer's job was to ensure the needs of Hotel Emma's future guests didn't trump the integrity of the original brewing building. In order to do that, Silver Ventures, Hotel Emma's developer, hired an industrial historian to document the building's brewing process. The historian also identified the brewery's parts that were valuable and could be salvaged to incorporate into the hotel's design.
Stephanie Guzman covers real estate and retail for the newspaper.
Most Popular
- Most popular
- Emailed
- Mobile
- Spurs’ Tim Duncan makes big contribution to landmark cancer project
- Blo Blow Dry Bar opens first San Antonio location
- K Partners sells 20 hotels, eyes more third-party management deals
- SOJO Crossing planned for Tobin Hill neighborhood
- S.A. is the 10th most affordable housing market
- Nothing says happy hour like 5 cent drinks
- Downtown's Bank of America Plaza building sold to two real estate
- Three questions for Diego Bernal: Payday lenders
- Spurs add executive muscle with NFL, MLS experience
- World Stem Cell Summit organizers encounter hotel ‘poachers’
-
Channel Sales Executive Houston Business Journal | Houston, TX
-
Financial Adviser Assistant i*financial | San Antonio, TX
-
Land Development Project Manager SouthStar Communities | Austin, TX
-
Vice President of Public Affairs San Antonio Water System | San Antonio, TX
-
Administrative Assistant Adecco | San Antonio, TX
Featured Property
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.