A stately two-story home just listed for $2.5 million in the coveted King William Historic District was once the home of Otto and Emma Koehler, the fabled husband and wife who each served as CEO and president of Pearl Brewery.
Not only were the Koehlers giants of industry, their success story took a salacious turn via two affairs and a murder.
Otto Koehler died in 1914 when he was shot and killed by one of his two mistresses — both of whom were also named Emma. It’s a sordid story some, including San Antonio Magazine, refer to as the “tale of the three Emmas.”
His wife, Emma Koehler — yes, as in Hotel Emma — ran the brewery after her husband’s death and is considered an ingenious CEO for enabling the business to weather Prohibition by pivoting to other types of work. To make it through the teetotalling times, the brewery offered dry cleaning and auto repair along with making ice cream, soda and non-alcoholic beer.
“While other breweries were shutting down, Koehler kept her entire workforce employed,” reads the biography on the Hotel Emma website. Koehler handed over the business to her nephew in 1933 but remained a “formidable presence” at the brewery for another decade leading up to her death. What’s more, the Koehlers’ home was designed by none other than Atlee B. Ayres, the famed architect behind the McNay Art Museum, Municipal Auditorium and San Antonio’s first skyscraper, the Smith Young Tower.
Built in 1903, this 3,000-square-foot property has a number of features original to Ayres’ vision, including long leaf pine floors, pocket doors, original woodwork and soaring 12-foot ceilings.
The grand foyer sets an immediate tone of turn-of-the-century opulence with an original Tiffany glass chandelier set against the backdrop of an ornately carved staircase.
Upstairs in the primary suite of the four-bedroom, four-bath home, a wall of folding glass doors opens onto the serenity of a private balcony. Below, the property boasts a rare two-lot expanse of lush greenery, including an outdoor kitchen.
This home is listed by Thomas Lumley with Phyllis Browning Co.
All photos and listing info via Realtor.com.
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