Spahn Bakery

Bakery on East Commerce Street, San Antonio. The founding site of what became Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company. In October 1904, William R. Hoffmann installed a small hand coffee roaster in a shack at the rear of the Spahn Bakery — the origin point of the H&H business.

The founding story

The founding narrative appears across multiple period sources and is one of the most consistent origin stories in the H&H press record:

“In 1904, Mr. Hoffmann purchased for a few dollars a small hand coffee roaster, of 25-pound capacity, which he installed in a shack located in the rear of the old Spahn Bakery in East Commerce Street. During the day, Mr. Hoffmann solicited orders, roasted the green coffee at night and delivered it by horse and buggy the next morning.” — San Antonio Express-News, 22 July 1935

A Studer Studios photograph published with the 1935 article shows the shack and the original roaster — a horizontal drum on an open four-legged stand with an end crank.

The 1937 fire-coverage article on the Aviation Coffee Company fire also references the Spahn Bakery origin: “In 1904 William R. Hoffman entered the coffee business in the rear of the old Spahn Bakery on East Commerce.” The word “old” in both 1935 and 1937 sources suggests the bakery was no longer operating under that name by those dates, or was at least no longer prominent.

Primary documentation

• HH-CLIP-1935-0010 — July 22, 1935 San Antonio Express-News feature; photo caption and article text; the Spahn shack photograph by Studer Studios is the only known image of the founding location.
• HH-CLIP-1937-0005 — 1937 aviation coffee fire article; confirms the founding address.

Open questions

• Precise address of the Spahn Bakery on East Commerce (the block number is undocumented)
• Whether the Spahn Bakery building or its East Commerce block survives in any form
• Who operated the Spahn Bakery and when it closed
• Whether a Sanborn Map of East Commerce circa 1900–1910 shows the bakery’s footprint
• Whether the 601 Delaware-designation-pathway project has flagged the Spahn Bakery site as a related historic address (noted in future/601-delaware-designation-pathway.md: “Are there other H&H-related properties (Burnett Street, Spahn Bakery site) on staff radar?”)

See also

• William R. Hoffmann — founder; launched business here 1904
• 1223 West Commerce Street — next address (Merchants Coffee merger era, 1912)
• 307 North Medina Street — consolidated “fireproof building” (1917–c.1922)
• Hoffmann-Hayman Company