Spahn Family

The Louis Spahn family ran a boarding house and grocery — the “old Spahn Bakery” — on East Commerce Street in San Antonio at the turn of the 20th century. They are the founding financiers of what became the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company: in 1904 the family lent William R. Hoffmann the $400 in seed capital with which he entered the retail roasted-coffee business, installing his first 25-pound hand roaster in a shack behind the bakery. The only known image of the founding location is the Studer Studios shack photograph in the 22 July 1935 San Antonio Express-News feature (HH-CLIP-1935-0010).

The two primary sources differ slightly on the family’s business: Gus Menger’s Great Oaks names a “boarding house and grocery on East Commerce Street,” while the 1935 Express-News feature calls it the “old Spahn Bakery.” Both place it on East Commerce Street, behind which Hoffmann’s first roaster operated.

See also

• Spahn Bakery — the founding-location building
• William R. Hoffmann · Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company