Commercial Building (Guenther House)

This house began as a small limestone cottage that stood alongside the mill that was also built by Carl H. Guenther, a German immigrant who moved to San Antonio from Fredericksburg in 1859. The family's business, the Pioneer Flour Mills, prospered, and in 1917, Guenther embarked on a major expansion of the residence, evident by the tiled roof and numerous porches. It is on the interior, however, that the work is most distinctive, with elements of the German Jugendstil appearing in the ornamental woodwork of the main family rooms on the first floor. In what was originally the tearoom are unusual decorative references to the products of the mill in the form of a mantelpiece ornamented by molded sheaths of wheat and a built-in buffet with molded stalks of corn. The house now operates as a restaurant.