Carl Hilmar Guenther House (Larry D. Moore CC BY-SA 3.0)
Carl Guenther ca. 1845 (UTSA Special Collections Library)
Lungkwitz, Hermann. Guenther's Mill on Live Oak Creek, 1855
Dorothea and Carl Hilmar Guenther and their family posed outside parlor of Guenther house, 1893. (UTSA Special Collections Library)
C. H. Guenther & Sons Upper Mill, 1884 (UTSA Special Collections Library)
Guenther & Sons, Pioneer Brand White Wings Flour Mill. The main tower was built in 1922. (Leaflet CC BY-SA 3.0)
A master millwright in Germany, Carl Hilmar Guenther sailed for Indianola, Texas, in 1851, and made his way to Fredericksburg, where he was amazed at the lack of facilities to process grains. So, being an industrious German, he built his first mill south of Fredericksburg, where it remained for eight years. Occasional droughts and floods forced him to move the operation to San Antonio. Guenther built his new mill on the banks of the San Antonio River. Pioneer Flour Mills, as it was known, flourished, enriching the Guenther family for more than a century afterward.
Guenther built a large home in 1860 in the largely German King William District adjacent to his mill. The repurposed home, which is open to the public, contains a popular restaurant, the River Mill Store, conference rooms, and a museum.
Guenther House Museum
- Hours: Monday – Saturday, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., Sunday, 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- Admission: None
- 205 E. Guenther St., San Antonio, TX
- 210-227-1061
- Visit Website
- National Register of Historic Places
