H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. founded 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

3 minute read

Multi-photo survey from 1 January 2023 at 331 Burnet Street, San Antonio: hand-painted Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee lettering flanking the Smith Print entrance, a large illustrated tin device reading H AND H COFFEE, south-face panels where stucco failed or was keyed off brick, and the building corner at the railroad crossing. Together the frames document scale and lettering variants beyond the single-square composition on Hand-Painted H and H Lettering — Ghost Sign on Exposed Brick. Below we pair those photographs with 1923–1932 newspaper context—plant imagery, a documented 1928 Burnet fire, and fireproof language for the 601 Delaware works.

Instagram 2023-01-01: Stucco on a brick building came off to reveal H & H underneath. Is it advertisement or signage? Has a pre-1930s rounded H&H coffee tin with embossed lid.

Stucco peeled back on brick to show hand-painted H and H lettering; a period rounded H and H tin with embossed lid sits beside the find for scale.

Original Instagram square (1 Jan 2023): period tin with embossed lid next to the exposed wall.

In the winter of 2022, an employee at Smith Print emailed us about H and H Coffee: advertising had been uncovered on their building when stucco fell away from the south face at 331 Burnet, next to the railroad tracks. On New Year’s Day we went over to photograph it and see what they were describing—that shorter write-up and tin-at-wall shot are on the post linked above.

Photographs — 1 January 2023, 331 Burnet Street

Front elevation — Smith Print sign over the arch; Hoffman Coffee (left) and Hayman Company (right) ghost lettering on brick

iPhone wide shot: Smith Print arch and paired Hoffman / Hayman ghost spreads. Contains a product image but it is not dominant as it might have been in an advertisement.

Large painted tin graphic — H AND H COFFEE — railroad bridge in the distance

Painted coffeetin and H AND H COFFEE BLEND line; truss bridge and tracks on the right.

H AND H / COFFEE block lettering with decorative border; pecked brick for later stucco

Framed block type and border, would have been red, navy, and gold; brick pecked to hold the later stucco coat.

AND H letterforms and mortar texture

“H AND H” detail: cream letters and mortar joints.

Stucco edge meeting scored brick; yellow and black paint bands

Stucco lip closeup: yellow and black bands on raw brick before stucco was applied.

South-face brick — stucco strip at left, nail remnants, faint paint ghosts

Along the south run: remaining stucco strip, nail tails, faint color ghosts. Freezing temperatures may have contributed to the final stucco failure.

Close brick — white and dark paint ghosts, rusted nails

Tight texture: white and grey paint ghosts, rusting nails left from the stucco.

HOFFMAN COFFEE — red block letters with light outlines

Two-line HOFFMAN COFFEE in red with light outlines on a dark ground;below in white on black field reads part of slogan …praise It.

HOF / COF fragment — dark panel behind red letters

Close up of upper lines read HOF… and COF; ;.

Smith Print entrance — HOFFMAN COFFEE (left of door), HAYMAN COMPANY (right); crossbuck at curb

Street-level: central arch, Smith Print fascia, ghost type both sides; clay tile courses and crossbuck at the curb.

White script on black panel; structural tie plates

White script on black panel praise; cast-iron star ties in the brick.

Large black letterforms on chipped white ground — COFFEE-era stroke fragments

Heavy black slab-serif strokes of ai on flaking white—bottom of COFFEE-era lettering.

Red block letter with cream outline — scored masonry and nail studs

Red block letter with cream outline FEE; wall keyed and studded for coverings.

Elevated view — Smith Print arch; symmetric Hoffman Coffee / Hayman Company spreads

Higher vantage: full arch, terracotta steps, symmetric ghost panels.

Corner — south wall toward railroad crossing; COFFEE block letters and crossing hardware

Southeast corner at the crossing: COFFEE line, gates, and crossbuck hardware.

South-face clay tile — wide stucco failure above fence line

Hollow structural tile courses of west face; broad stucco loss above chain-link.

Structural clay tile wall — stucco loss; chain-link and barbed wire in foreground

Structural clay tile and failed stucco. Archway for main entrance and outlines of covered windows match the ink drawing announcing H and H move to Burnet Street in 1923.

Newspaper context — plant imagery, Burnet fire, Delaware Street

Plant rendering crop — *San Antonio Light*, 26 Aug 1923, “The New Home of a Great Institution”

Crop from page 59: bird’s-eye plant rendering in the “New Home of a Great Institution” spread.

The 1923 San Antonio Light spread “The New Home of a Great Institution” shows the company’s plant and ambitions at scale; the plant rendering crop isolates that artwork. Together they bracket how Hoffmann-Hayman presented itself in print, while the ghost sign is a rare surviving look at paint on masonry at the street level entrance. As with later drawings of the Delware factory in articles, they do not match the actual buildings exactly.

Fire at Burnet Street and fireproof construction at 601 Delaware

Contemporary coverage confirms a 1928 fire at the Hoffman-Hayman works on Burnet Street, not only hypothetical risk from roasting and warehouse use:

San Antonio Light, 31 Aug 1928 — “Fires Damage Home and Coffee Plant” (Hoffman-Hayman at 331 Burnet Street)

Page 21 brief: small fire at Hoffman-Hayman, 331 Burnet, same era as the ghost-sign wall.

Full transcription and citation: Fires damage home and coffee plant — San Antonio Light, 31 August 1928.

When the firm announced the new Delaware Street factory in 1932, the San Antonio Light piece explicitly called out fireproof construction—alongside square footage, architects, and the Crystalvac roof display. That language reads differently once a Burnet-era fire sits in the same timeline; see Hoffmann-Hayman plant modern throughout — San Antonio Light, 24 July 1932 (transcription includes the fireproof line; Hoffmann-Hayman was at 331 Burnet about ten years).

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