Open Questions

An auto-generated index of every ## Open questions section across Facts. Source of truth lives in each entity’s Facts page — when you find a primary source that closes a question, edit the corresponding Facts page (not this index) and the next site build will rescrape and drop the question from the listing.

For the curated cross-cutting research-agenda (with the slow-motion mystery framing, prioritized research angles, and resolved chapters as one-line pointers), see the Mystery page. The Mystery page tells the story of the research arc; this page is the exhaustive working list of what’s still unanswered.

117 open questions aggregated from 117 KB pages.

Brands (29 pages)

Anita Coffee — 5 open

• What is the bracketing window for Anita’s introduction? First documented attestation is September 1937; Anita is not in the 1926 San Antonio Light “Largest Coffee Plant” high-grade roster (H AND H BLEND, SAM HOUSTON, BRONCHO, BORDER, MENGER PEABERRY, TEXCO). So if Anita is an H&H launch (not a Juanita rebrand), the introduction window is 1927–1937 — a wide bracket. A 1928–1936 H&H ad or sales sheet naming Anita would tighten this.
• Why did Anita disappear between 1942 and 1957 while sibling Texco persisted? Both are Spanish-name brands in the 1942 wholesale package roster. Texco appears in the 1942 sheet and is documented in the package list well past 1942; Anita is absent from every post-1942 source. What discriminated them in the H&H late-WWII / postwar portfolio reshape?
• Did the bulk Anita Peaberry Blend outlive the retail Anita SKU? The 1942 bulk sheet positions Anita Peaberry Blend in commercial-supply distribution (galvanized pail / blue drum); the retail Anita SKU on the 1942 package sheet is separate. Bulk-channel SKUs typically have less public-facing advertising, so absence from 1957–1964 retail sources doesn’t rule out continued bulk-channel circulation. An H&H 1945–1965 commercial price sheet would document this.
• Is “Anita” a wordmark trademark-filed? No on-site evidence. The Crystalvac precedent (Reg. U.S. Pat. Off., 1932) suggests USPTO TESS would hold any Anita Coffee or Anita Peaberry Blend registration if filed. A trademark filing dated 1927–1937 would also help bracket the Anita introduction window (Open Question 1 above).
• What is the visual relationship between Anita and the Spanish-name H&H sibling brands? The “Star of the Ranch” device on the Witte pail is a notable trade-dress element. Did Misa Coffee or other Spanish-name brands carry similar ranch / Western imagery? A direct comparison would discriminate whether Anita’s trade-dress is a deliberate continuation of a Spanish-name-family visual vocabulary or a one-off Western motif.

Auto Blend Coffee — 3 open

• Was Auto Blend a Morrison brand? The 1912 column reporter groups it with “Morrison-era house names,” but the 28 Jan 1917 acquisition announcement does not name Auto Blend in its five-brand continued-packing list. Resolution requires period Morrison advertising or Texas trademark records.
• Why the 3-lb. → 4-lb. shift between 1912 and 1915? Same 80¢ price point with an extra pound — a deliberate value repositioning, a Cordova-bean-substitution reformulation, or a competitive response to neighbor brands?
• Discontinuation window. Auto Blend’s last documented citation is May 1915. Was the brand retired by Morrison before the Jan 1917 acquisition, or did it disappear from market columns while continuing in retail under another name?

Big Dime — 4 open

• Earliest and latest documented attestations (1917 is the surfaced earliest; no post-1920s mentions in the project record yet)
• Pack format — paper packet? Small foil? The 1917 wording is silent on physical format
• Whether Big Dime was H&H-created or Morrison-acquired (it doesn’t appear in the 28 Jan 1917 Morrison-acquisition Announcement, suggesting H&H-created; cross-check 1912/1915 wholesale columns)
• Did Big Dime persist into the 1942 wholesale price sheets, or drop out earlier?

Broncho Coffee — 2 open

• Why did Broncho disappear by 1942 while Morrison-sibling Texco survived? Both Morrison-acquired brands appear in the 1917 acquisition announcement; both appear in the 1923 products spread and the 1926 Largest Coffee Plant roster; but Texco persists into the 1942 wholesale price sheet (and the 1923 products spread sized it as a “one-pound double-fluted bag” — a smaller-format retail line) while Broncho (sold in three-pound lithographed pails with imported cup-and-saucer-with-gold-band-design premium) does not. Did the premium-pail-with-giveaway business model become uneconomic during the Depression and wartime rationing, while the smaller-format Texco persisted as a value-tier alternative? A 1927–1941 H&H price sheet or jobber’s catalog tracking the premium-pail line specifically would help discriminate.
• What was the relationship between Broncho’s bucking-horse vignette and the Western-named H&H sibling brands? Anita’s Witte-Museum reference pail carries “Star of the Ranch” Western imagery; Sam Houston is a Texas-hero brand. Were Broncho, Anita, and Sam Houston a coordinated Western-trade-dress family within H&H’s portfolio, distinct from the Spanish-name (Misa, Juanita, Texco) and house-name (H and H Blend, H and H Coffee) wordmark families?

Crystalvac Jars — 8 open

1. Dr. J. H. Toulouse attribution — collector literature attributes the large three-pound jar body design to Dr. J. H. Toulouse, but no primary-source citation has been tied to that claim. Currently flagged inline (under Owens-Illinois Glass Company above) as “tradition, not fact” pending a citation.
2. 601-mold sequence gaps (partially closed 2026-05-16) — the patent-stack mold numbers now documented in the collection run 601-1, 601-3, 601-4, 601-5, 601-7, 601-8 (the 2016-02-17 amber Crystalvac specimen, accession HH-PACKAGING-2016-0004, is the 601-8 example, surfaced during the DEBT-4 narrative-bucket-matching pass). 601-2 and 601-6 remain unsurfaced. Worth noting: the 601-8 amber jar carries a clean circular base imprint rather than the offset rounded-square imprint used on the 601-1/3/4/5/7 clear specimens, suggesting circular = later production-engineering change. Whether 601-2 and 601-6 are real molds not yet collected, never produced, or assigned to other Three Rivers products is unresolved.
3. Production endpoint — the 1947 period upper bound matches Ball Brothers’ divestment of Three Rivers Glass after antitrust action; Owens-Illinois blanks continued to be molded for Crystalvac (a 1939 date-coded large jar is documented). When Crystalvac glass-jar production as a whole actually stopped — and whether mid-century H&H “vacuum can” references (e.g. the 1961 Broggi disc) mark a deliberate transition from glass to metal — is undocumented.
4. Lid design chronology — multiple lid types are catalogued (plain metal; embossed “WE ROAST IT” / Crystalvac VACUUM PACKED / “OTHERS PRAISE IT”; red enamel with Crystalvac script). The chronological sequence — which lid design is earliest, when they overlapped, and whether specific lid designs map to specific jar sizes — is not pinned down.
5. 1934 five-ounce (pint) variant — referenced in dealer literature on the Wanted list but not photographed in the collection; its existence, capacity, and trade dress are unconfirmed.
6. 1932 factory-roof replica Crystalvac — period accounts mention a large replica Crystalvac jar installed on the new Delaware Street plant roof at the 1932 opening; no period photograph or modern survey shot has been located.
7. Why is “601” the mold-number prefix? The patent-stack mold numbers documented in the collection (see question 2 above for the surfaced/unsurfaced split — 601-1, 601-3, 601-4, 601-5, 601-7, 601-8) all share the 601 prefix, the same number as the factory address (601 Delaware Street). The small Crystalvac jar from Grand Prairie, TX post first flagged the coincidence: was 601 a deliberate Hoffmann-Hayman / Three Rivers Glass design decision tying the customer’s mold sequence to the customer’s street address, or is it numerical coincidence within Three Rivers’ internal mold-numbering scheme? Research angles: compare the mold-prefix numbers stamped on jars Three Rivers produced for other customers (e.g., the Texas Glass identified shelf in the reference materials) — if other Three Rivers customers also get street-address prefixes, the pattern is customer-coded; if Three Rivers used a single ascending counter across customers, 601 is coincidence; the Michael David Smith Texas Glass book and Witte Museum’s Three Rivers Glass holdings are the natural starting points.

8. Handle-form chronology — was the wire-bail-with-turned-wood-grip phased out, or did wood and plain wire coexist? The collection contains both forms: the 2019 aqua jar (Owens-Illinois, post-1938) and the 2015 Colleyville jar (maker not yet confirmed) preserve the wire-bail-with-turned-wood-grip intact, while the 2017-09-12 red-lid three-pound jar (Owens-Illinois, post-1938) and the 2018-04-21 butter-churn body (Owens-Illinois) carry plain wire bails with no wood. The period evidence at the 1932 launch — the 23 Dec 1932 San Antonio Light “Handy Glass Jar” ad and the 19 Dec 1932 Express-News “3-Pound Jars” article — both depict bail-handled jars consistent with the wood-grip form (and the “Handy” framing fits the wood-grip rationale of being easier to carry). But because both surviving wood-grip jars and surviving plain-wire jars are Owens-Illinois era, the data doesn’t support a clean “wood early, plain late” chronology. Possible readings: (a) the wood grip was the original 1932 retail form and a cheaper plain-wire variant was introduced later (cost-cutting, value-tier, or institutional/bulk SKU); (b) wood and plain wire coexisted throughout production as separate SKUs or premium tiers; (c) survival bias — wood breaks while wire doesn’t, so today’s “plain wire” jars may have originally had wood grips that fell off. The diagnostic for (c): inspect the wire at the top of the bail arch on plain-wire jars — straight wire = never had a grip; paired crimps/bends spaced for a cylindrical grip = wood is lost. Research angles: (1) catalog every Crystalvac jar in the collection against {maker, handle form, lid form, label form} to test whether handle form correlates with any other dating variable; (2) find a period photograph or grocery ad from 1933–1945 that depicts the plain-wire variant in retail use (would rule out survival bias); (3) check the Colleyville jar’s base mark for Three Rivers Star vs Owens-Illinois (would anchor whether the wood-grip predates 1938 in the collection); (4) compare against the 2014-08-13 Bowie/Etsy wire-basket-cage-with-wood-handle form — that’s a different design (cage around the jar rather than wood as a section of the bail arch) and already flagged in its own post as possibly a later aftermarket grocery-carrier addition, not a factory feature.

   Tentative findings (2026-05-21 photo-only inspection). The diagnostic (paired crimps / bends at the bail-arch center where a wooden grip would have sat) was applied to the existing gallery photos:

   • 2019-08-17 aqua jar — used as the wire-bail-with-wood reference. The dedicated *-bail.jpg close-up shows the wire entering a turned-wood cylinder at the top of the arch; the wire and wood are integral.
   • 2018-04-21 butter-churn jar (plain wire) — best side view of any plain-wire bail in the current photo set. The bail is visible across the front of the jar in rest position. The wire appears smooth and uniform, with no flattened section, paired bends, or crimps at the center. Initial reading: this jar’s bail looks like it was always plain wire (i.e., not a survival-bias artifact of a lost wood grip). Caveat: this jar has been retrofitted as a butter-churn body, so the original lid was replaced and the bail itself may also have been replaced or modified during the conversion — treat as suggestive, not definitive.
   • 2017-09-12 red-lid three-pound jar (plain wire) — top-down photo only; the bail is visible looping over the right side of the lid but no clean side profile is photographed. Inconclusive from existing images. This is the cleanest unmodified plain-wire jar in the collection and is the priority target for a dedicated side-angle bail close-up the next time the jar is in hand.
   • 2019-10-04 paper-label H&H Blend three-pound (plain wire) — front-on shot of the paper label; bail not adequately visible. Inconclusive from existing images.

   Photo task to close survival-bias question: pull the 2017-09-12 red-lid jar and the 2019-10-04 paper-label jar, photograph each bail arch straight-on from the side with even lighting, and look for (a) paired bends or crimps at the wire’s center spaced for a cylindrical grip, (b) wire-diameter or surface-finish discontinuity at the center vs the ends (oxidation difference where wood would have shielded the wire), (c) bail length comparison against the 2019-08-17 aqua jar’s intact wood-bail arch (matching arch length but missing wood = grip was there and is lost; shorter arch = bail was always plain). If both jars show smooth uniform wire with no center crimps and identical arch length to the wood-bail jars, the plain-wire form is real and (c) survival bias is ruled out — pointing to either (a) cheaper later variant or (b) parallel SKUs.

Double H Coffee — 4 open

• Was “Double H” the HH-monogram device or a distinct wordmark? The HH monogram on the surviving bulk tin documented on the H and H Blend page is the visual candidate; a labeled “Double H” pack would settle this.
• Why did Double H disappear after Aug 1917 while paired-partner Texco continued through 1942? The Texco-and-Double-H 1-lb. line was a single roster entry; only Texco’s half survived into the next H&H advertising window.
• Was Double H a Morrison-era line? Not named in the 28 Jan 1917 acquisition announcement but may have been part of the “including” hedge. Period Morrison advertising or trademark records would discriminate.
• Was Double H a separately-priced value-tier of H and H Blend? The 1-lb. format and pairing with Texco (positioned as a price-point line in the same roster) is consistent with a value-tier reading, but no per-pound pricing for Double H survives on this site.

El Merito Coffee — 3 open

• Was El Merito a Morrison brand? Not named in the 28 Jan 1917 acquisition announcement; the 1915 column places it alongside non-Morrison neighbors (Sunset, Mrs. Rorer’s, Maxwell House), weakening the “Morrison-era roster” framing. Resolution requires period Morrison advertising or Texas trademark records.
• Why the 28¢ → 25¢ price drop? No primary source explains the 10.7% decrease at the same can format. Competitive pressure, bean-substitution, or volume-pricing strategy?
• Spanish-naming continuity. El Merito (1912–1915) and Juanita (1912–1917) are both Spanish-named Morrison-era brands; Anita (1937–1942+) is the later H&H Spanish-named line. Whether El Merito’s discontinuation cleared the way for Juanita’s continued use, or whether all three lines aimed at slightly different Tejano-market price points, is undocumented.

Fancy Peaberry — 3 open

• Was the brand H&H-created or Morrison-acquired? Not in the 28 Jan 1917 Morrison-acquisition Announcement list — suggesting H&H-created, but absence isn’t proof.
• A 1921–1922 H&H ad or sales sheet naming the brand as “Fancy Peaberry” or “Menger Peaberry” would tighten the 1920–1923 rename window.
• 1942 wholesale price-sheet presence/absence (covered on the Menger Peaberry page — neither wordmark appears; peaberry category continues only under unrelated bulk-tier SKUs)

Flav-O-Tainer — 5 open

• Was “FLAV-O-TAINER” trademark-filed? The consistent quote-marking in retail copy suggests H&H treated it as a mark. A Texas Secretary of State filing or USPTO registration would confirm and might surface the formal filing date (probably late 1942). Research precedent: H&H’s other packaging-technology wordmark Crystalvac is documented in launch copy as “Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.” — i.e., USPTO-registered in 1932. The same filing system should hold any Flav-O-Tainer registration; a USPTO TESS search on “Hoffmann-Hayman” assignee would surface both marks if Flav-O-Tainer was filed.
• Did Flav-O-Tainer return after WWII? No on-site source after 23 July 1943 references the bag. A 1944–1945 ad would document whether the wartime brand persisted into late-war or was retired immediately when tin-rationing eased.
• Were brands beyond H&H Drip Grind packed in Flav-O-Tainers? All three ads pair the bag with H AND H Drip Grind specifically. Master Chef, Texas Girl, and Sam Houston — H&H’s other wartime-era brands — are not documented in Flav-O-Tainer packaging on this site.
• What was the bag’s per-unit retail price during rationing? None of the three 1942–43 ads prints a retail price. The ration-stamp execution implies wartime price-control levels; a 1942–43 grocery ad with Flav-O-Tainer pricing would document the wartime H&H value point.
• Is the “-O” wordmark convention a documentable H&H in-house naming policy? Both Flav-O-Tainer (1942) and Jav-O (1954) are quote-marked H&H neologisms with the hyphenated “-O” structure; the convention is small (two known wordmarks across 12 years) but consistent. A 1940s–50s H&H internal memo, jobber’s catalog, or trademark filing portfolio could confirm or refute the deliberate-family reading.

H and H Blend Coffee — 6 open

• When did “H and H Blend” give way to “H and H Coffee” as the dominant wordmark? Period copy through 1922 and 1932 uses “H and H Blend” consistently. By 1942 (Flav-O-Tainer ads) the wordmark is “H AND H ROASTER FRESH DRIP GRIND COFFEE” — no “Blend” script. By 1960 the corporate roster names the line “H and H Coffee,” not “H and H Blend.” Was there a deliberate retire-and-replace of the “Blend” script, or did “Blend” gradually fall away from retail face-card use while remaining the in-house blend identity? A mid-1930s sales sheet or jobber’s catalog would discriminate.
• What is the founding-year primary source? Resolved on the company hub. See Hoffmann-Hayman Company § Founding date — resolved: two independent 1934 sources (the “30 Years of Progress” illustration of Oct 12, 1934 and the “Thank You” anniversary ad of Oct 19, 1934) establish October 1904 as the H and H brand founding (the date H&H Blend was first sold). 1899 is the company’s official advertising claim and refers to William R. Hoffmann starting in the coffee trade at George C. Sauer’s grocery on Alamo Plaza. 1912 is the corporate-charter date. The 1899 / 1904 / 1912 dates are all consistent and represent three different milestones in the same lineage.
• Did “H and H Blend” appear on Flav-O-Tainer bags? The three documented Flav-O-Tainer ads show only DRIP GRIND front-panel wordmarks. Whether a parallel “H and H Blend” Flav-O-Tainer existed for the medium-ground / pulverized retail lines is undocumented.
• What is the latest “H and H Blend” attestation? The 1934 ½-lb tin is the latest cited under H and H Coffee (house mark) above. A surviving 1940s or 1950s tin or bag with explicit “Blend” script would extend the wordmark-specific run.
• How does the 1964 59¢ price point compare to 1922 retail? The 1922 Evening News ad documents grinds × sizes but on-site doesn’t surface a per-pound price. A 1920s grocery ad with H and H Blend pricing would let the long-run inflation pattern be reconstructed.
• South Texas Tejano general-store porch photo (ca. 1942) — photographer, archive, and precise location. The black-and-white documentary frame at H and H Coffee Porcelain Sign on a South Texas Tejano General-Store Porch shows a porcelain-enamel “H AND H Coffee” sign mounted on the porch railing of a rural Tejano general store, dated to 1942 or shortly after by a Spanish-language Mujer Mexicana (1942) movie poster leaning at the frame’s left edge and a 25¢ LOOK magazine in the window display. The composition (frontal, eye-level, patient attention to commercial signage, mustachioed older gentleman composed in as the human anchor) is a strong stylistic match for FSA / Office of War Information South Texas documentary work of the 1942–43 transition period, but no archival attribution has been confirmed. Research angles: Library of Congress FSA/OWI online catalog search by South Texas / Tejano / general-store keywords and by individual photographers (Russell Lee, John Vachon, Marion Post Wolcott); comparison against identified FSA frames of Crystal City, Robstown, Laredo, Eagle Pass, and Brownsville; identification of the hand-lettered “ESPAUDA Health Club” Spanish-language window sign as a town anchor; the seated man may be named in a LOC caption if the frame turns out to be FSA/OWI. This is the rural-Tejano counterpart to the urban Oriental Cafe in-situ H&H sign frame already in the Reference gallery.

H and H Cocoa — 5 open

1. Provenance of the 1924 tin-size dating — the body asserts H&H Cocoa was packed in 3½ oz and 8 oz tins in 1924, but no 1924 source is registered in the page’s frontmatter. Whether the year is drawn from an undated catalog reference, a project notebook, or transcription drift from the 1923 Light spread is unresolved; the registered sources only cover 1923.
2. No in-collection specimen — neither a 3½ oz nor an 8 oz Cocoa tin (nor any other Cocoa package, carton, or paper label) has been photographed for the archive. Until one is documented, the line is effectively a Wanted placeholder rather than a fully documented retail brand.
3. Organizational placement — the November 1932 Express-News article announcing Hoffmann-Hayman’s separate Spice and Extract Department names only spices and extracts; cocoa is not mentioned. Whether cocoa was administered outside that department, transferred to a different unit, or already discontinued by 1932 is undocumented.
4. Shared-equipment claim — the lede asserts cocoa packaging reused coffee-plant dryers, grinders, and packaging. The same claim is well-supported for spices and tea via collection prose; whether cocoa was ground / blended in-house or co-packed under H&H livery is not directly documented.
5. Post-1924 silence — after the 1923 Light products spread (and the unsourced 1924 size reference), H&H Cocoa drops out of the project’s documented sources. The 1942 H&H wholesale price sheets cover coffee SKUs only; the cocoa line’s discontinuation date is unrecoverable.

H and H Drip Grind Coffee — 4 open

1. Brand vs. grind variation — the 1937 and 1941 ads present “H AND H DRIP GRIND Coffee” as a labeled retail SKU with distinctive grind-size positioning (“especially designed for glassbrewers and dripmakers”). Whether this was a separate brand in H&H’s lineup or a grind variation of the H and H Blend house line is undocumented; the 1942 H&H wholesale package-coffee price sheet does not name “Drip Grind” as a distinct SKU, which favors the grind-variation reading. The 1937 ad also names “PERC-O-DRIP GRIND” as a distinct label option alongside Drip Grind, suggesting a grind menu rather than distinct brands.
2. Wartime substitution endpoint — the Flav-O-Tainer documented substitution ran December 1942 through July 1943; the body’s “presumably H&H Drip Grind returned to vacuum cans postwar” is unsourced. Whether the line returned to its prewar Crystalvac packaging, transitioned to a different format, or was discontinued is undocumented.
3. Postwar continuation — after the July 1943 Flav-O-Tainer ad, H&H Drip Grind drops out of the project’s documented sources. The 1957/1959/1960/1964 postwar attestations and the 1960 corporate roster focus on Master Chef Coffee / Master Chef Instant and the four named retail wordmarks; none mention Drip Grind.
4. F-1231 ad reference — the F-1231 code in the 1941 Light ad has no associated documentation; whether it was an agency tracking number, in-house file reference, or syndication identifier is unresolved.

H and H Extracts — 5 open

1. Pre-1923 internal origin — the November 1932 Express-News department-formation article asserts H&H had “for many years produced” spices and extracts; the earlier internal start date is unrecoverable from the captured sources.
2. Full flavor inventory — beyond Vanilla and Extract of Lemon, the 1932 “over 33 spices and extracts” combined roster is largely unidentified for the extract side; possible candidates include almond, orange, peppermint, and the compound “flavorings” typical of period grocery lines.
3. Bottle shapes and label formats — no confirmed H&H extract bottle has been photographed; the Kork-N-Seal “H & H” base-embossed bottle (above) remains attribution-open between Hoffmann-Hayman and Haig & Haig Scotch. The 19 Dec 1932 Crystalvac bundle photograph documents a vanilla-extract carton in the same trade-dress family as the parallel tea / spices cartons but at newsprint scale — the underlying bottle shape and the carton’s specific wordmark are still unrecoverable.
4. In-house bottling vs. co-packed — same unresolved question as on H and H Spices: labels read “Packed for Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co.” without indicating where the bottling happened.
5. Post-1932 silence — after the November 1932 department article, extracts drop out of the project’s documented sources. The 1942 H&H wholesale price sheets cover coffee SKUs only; whether the extract line was discontinued, transferred, or simply unrecorded in the captured window is unresolved.

H and H Instant Coffee — 4 open

• Did an “H and H Instant Coffee” wordmark ever exist? No on-site primary source documents it. Hypothesis 1 (editorial misclassification) is currently best-supported; Hypotheses 2 (parallel wordmark) and 3 (anticipatory cataloging) remain live until either a labeled H&H-branded instant jar surfaces or a corporate sales sheet rules the line in or out.
• Should the Brands-index slot be retained? If Hypothesis 1 holds, item 3 (“H and H Instant Coffee”) on Brands is editorial inference rather than primary record and may warrant annotation or removal. If Hypothesis 2 holds, the slot is a valid placeholder for a not-yet-surfaced wordmark.
• What are the actual 2-oz / 6-oz Master Chef Instant labels? The 1959 coupon form confirms paper labels but no on-site image catalogues the actual labelstock, color scheme, or wordmark layout. The Master Chef Instant 2-oz and 6-oz jars are independent collector targets on the Wanted list.
• Was there a 1950s “FREE FOLDER” mailer? The 1957 ad solicits requests for “FREE FOLDER WRITE HOFFM, P.O. BOX 1509.” If any of those mailers survive, they would catalog the contemporaneous H&H product line and discriminate between Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2 with one source.

H and H Spices — 6 open

1. In-house ground vs. co-packed — labels read “Packed for Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co., San Antonio, Texas.” Whether spices were ground and filled in the H&H plant or arrived pre-ground from a third-party co-packer for retail finishing remains undocumented; the long black pepper donation post examines the wording without resolving it.
2. Internal origin pre-1923 — the 28 November 1932 Express-News article asserts H&H had “for many years produced spices and extracts under the H. and H. brand,” pushing the line’s internal start earlier than the 1923 first-documented promotion. The earlier date is currently unrecoverable from the captured sources.
3. Remaining flavors from the 1932 33-line inventory — the November 1932 article puts the line at “over 33 different spices and extracts.” This page catalogs 10 flavors (plus the 1933 mustard). The other ~23 are unidentified; candidates include cloves, mace, cardamom, caraway, coriander, and the various extracts on H and H Extracts. The 10 March 1934 The News product display (post) shows the Dutch Lunch Mustard jar in the foreground alongside 4 smaller unidentified items — likely spice tins or extract bottles. A higher-resolution scan of that image could identify additional formats from the 33-item line.
4. Dutch Lunch Mustard glass jar — no in-collection specimen has been photographed; only the 25 November 1933 News ad documents the product.
5. Post-1933 silence — after the November 1933 Dutch Lunch Mustard placement the spice line drops out of the project’s documented sources. Whether the line was discontinued, transferred elsewhere, or simply no longer advertised in the captured window (the 1942 H&H wholesale price sheets cover coffee SKUs only) is unresolved.
6. “ANCHO” reading — the misread “ANCHO” on the black-pepper overwrap originally pointed toward an Anchor-branded competitor; the correct reading remains a research thread per the black pepper donation post.

H and H Tea — 5 open

1. H. W. Taylor Co. relationship — the 1923 Light footer reads “The same excellence of H. W. Taylor Co., Philadelphia.” Precise nature (supplier, blender, licensor, or marketing rhetoric) remains undocumented.
2. 1921 carton specimen — the H AND H BLEND CEYLON-INDIA TEA carton illustrated in the 14 June 1921 Evening News ad has not been located in any surviving form.
3. Master Chef tea bags (1950s) — wholesale-booth photograph implies cartons; no physical example or print ad has surfaced.
4. Post-1958 silence — after the July 1958 Light giant-iced-tea premium the tea line drops out of the project’s documented sources; whether the line was discontinued, renamed, or simply no longer advertised in the captured window is unresolved.
5. 1934 Register ad detail — copy, pricing, and carton iconography on the twin 22 June 1934 placements pending re-OCR pass.

Jav-O Coffee — 5 open

• What was the “neutral, healthful ingredient”? Resolved May 2026: chickpeas (chick-peas), ~20% by weight, 20.8% vegetable protein. “NO chicory — NO cereal.” See bag label documentation above.
• Did Jav-O survive past 1954? No on-site primary source documents the brand after December 1954. The absence from the 1957, 1959, and 1960 H&H sources suggests retirement by mid-decade — but a 1955–1959 grocery ad, jobber’s catalog, or distributor invoice could confirm continued production.
• Was Jav-O distributed beyond Corpus Christi? Resolved May 2026: yes — the July 1954 San Antonio Light (Handy-Andy) ad and July 1954 Brownsville Herald ad confirm distribution in San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley simultaneously with the Corpus Christi launch. The brand reached at least three major Texas markets in its first month.
• Where did the name “Jav-O” come from? “Java” was period slang for coffee (especially 1940s–50s); “Jav-O” reads as Java + O contraction, retaining the coffee evocation while signaling the mixture. No H&H copy on this site explains the etymology.
• Is “Jav-O” connected to “Flav-O-Tainer”? H&H launched Flav-O-Tainer in December 1942 as a wartime cellophane-lined-bag packaging wordmark for H&H Drip Grind Coffee, documented across three primary ads through July 1943. The hyphenated “-O” wordmark convention (FLAV-O-TAINER / Jav-O), the quote-marked retail treatment in both cases, and the constrained-supply-era origin (WWII metal rationing for Flav-O-Tainer, postwar coffee-price inflation for Jav-O) read as a deliberate H&H naming-policy family bracketed to 1942–1954. See the Flav-O-Tainer brand page for the full documentation and the wordmark-structure discussion.

Maryland Club Coffee — 3 open

• Maryland Club’s corporate ownership in 1964. Various sources name Coca-Cola Company, Duncan Foods, and Maryland Club Foods Inc. as historical owners across different eras. The specific 1964 owner (the entity whose product the Fredericksburg ad sold) is undocumented in the KB.
• Other Maryland Club attestations in the SA market. The KB has one 1964 attestation; broader 1950s-1970s SA-newspaper grocery-ad coverage would establish whether Maryland Club was an episodic feature or a persistent shelf competitor for H&H.
• The 10-oz jar format. Maryland Club’s 10-oz jar in 1964 differs from the documented Master Chef Instant 2-oz and 6-oz jar sizes (7 Nov 1957 SA Express ad — see brands/h-and-h-instant-coffee.md). Whether H&H ever packed a 10-oz instant jar to match Maryland Club’s format is the open Hypothesis 2/3 question on the instant-coffee page.

Master Chef Coffee — 9 open

• What is the primary source for the 1927 hotel-trade origin? Partially resolved (2026-05-16 newspaper-body sweep): the 1 February 1952 Corpus Christi Caller-Times “INTRODUCING TO CORPUS CHRISTI” ad independently asserts Master Chef as “a 25-year favorite in leading hotels, cafés and clubs of Texas” — which puts the brand’s hotel-trade origin at circa 1927, matching the H&H lore date. The 1952 copy is itself company-authored (an H&H ad placement), so it’s not strictly third-party corroboration — but two independent company self-attestations (the project’s general lore + the 1952 Corpus Christi ad copy) anchor 1927 as the asserted origin year. A genuine third-party primary source (1927–1931 hotel/café-trade ad, an H&H sales sheet, or a period commercial-supply contract) would confirm rather than re-state the company claim. The 1922 curiosity flag is resolved negatively (2026-05-16 PDF verification): the 10 December 1922 San Antonio Light “Little Journeys” article body — read directly from the archived PDF — names only “H & H” as a branded coffee and lists the H&H product line as generic categories (“coffee, tea, spices, extracts and cocoa”). The “Master Chef” attribution in the post’s prior curator summary was a curator anachronism (now removed from the post and from this page’s sources list). 1922 is therefore not a Master Chef attestation, and the earliest documentary Master Chef attestation on this site remains the 21 December 1932 Express-News “Southwest finest plant” copy. The 1927 hotel-trade origin claim still rests on the 1952 Corpus Christi “25-year favorite” copy + project lore.
• Founding-year discrepancy: 1899 vs 1904. Resolved on the company hub. See Hoffmann-Hayman Company § Founding date — resolved: the two independent 1934 anniversary sources confirm October 1904 as the H and H brand founding (when H&H Blend was first sold). 1899 is the company’s official “Since 1899” advertising claim, anchored to William R. Hoffmann starting in the San Antonio coffee trade at George C. Sauer’s grocery on Alamo Plaza. 1912 is the corporate-charter date. The three years are all consistent and represent three different milestones in the same lineage. The 1959 “FOUNDED IN 1904” and 1960 “established in 1904” framings refer to the brand-founding milestone.
• When did Master Chef move from hotel/café trade to grocery retail? Substantially revised (2026-05-16 newspaper-body sweep): the move was not a single 1952 event. The 18 May 1935 News “QUALITY H & H PRODUCTS” strip ad shows H&H MASTER CHEF COFFEE (jar format) in a consumer-retail three-brand lineup with H&H Blend and H&H Tea under the “FOR EVERY TASTE — POCKETBOOK” framing — the same retail-positioning language later used for Sam Houston/Texas Girl in July 1938. So Master Chef was already in San Antonio consumer-retail by May 1935. The 1942 wholesale price sheet lists M. Chef Blends A & B in the package-coffee section (institutional cafe-trade pricing). The 1 February 1952 Corpus Christi Caller-Times “INTRODUCING TO CORPUS CHRISTI” is a regional-market introduction, not a brand-wide first consumer entry — the explicit “Introducing to Corpus Christi” framing only makes sense if the brand was already in consumer retail elsewhere (i.e., San Antonio). The most accurate framing is: Master Chef ran in dual retail/cafe-trade mode from at least May 1935; major regional grocery-retail expansion came in 1952.
• Did Master Chef have a Crystalvac-jar or Flav-O-Tainer-bag variant? The 1959 Burpee promo’s “unwinding strip” proof-of-purchase implies strip-key sealed tins; the page documents lithographed and keywind tins. No Crystalvac or Flav-O-Tainer Master Chef appears in the on-site record, suggesting Master Chef was tin-only — but a wartime cellophane-bag Master Chef would have been a natural extension of the 1942–43 Flav-O-Tainer campaign.
• What is the latest Master Chef attestation? Substantially pushed forward (2026-05-21). The brand demonstrably survived the 1962 Continental Coffee acquisition and ran under Continental’s “Master Chef Food Products” subsidiary at 601 Delaware through at least 25 March 1968. Latest documented attestations on site, in order: (a) 11 December 1966 — San Antonio Express-News p. 102 Master Chef “Free! Flavor for coffee Lovers” promotional copy (HH-CLIP-1966-0001); (b) 22 December 1966 — San Antonio Light p. 32 “Master Chef Color Provides Key” article with Jack Moore named as president (HH-CLIP-1966-0002); (c) 30 December 1966 — San Antonio Express “Master Chef Expanding” feature documenting the new color-keyed cans, Jack Moore (president) and Warren Burns (sales manager) of Master Chef Food Products, plant “expanded and modernized” at 601 Delaware, mascots Jordan Sawyer (“the Master Chef”) and Karla Kreft (“the Master Chef girl”) (HH-CLIP-1966-0003); (d) 18 January 1968 — H. L. Green grocer ad listing Master Chef tea bags (HH-CLIP-1968-0001); (e) 12 February 1968 — Handy-Andy “Master Chef Valuable Coupon” grocery ad (HH-CLIP-1968-0002); (f) 25 March 1968 — Handy-Andy “Coffee 59¢” oval display ad with Master Chef in the lineup (HH-CLIP-1968-0003). The 1966 Continental-era cluster also surfaces two previously undocumented officers — Jack Moore (president) and Warren Burns (sales manager) — and confirms the brand kept dedicated mascot personas under the Continental subsidiary. The window between the March 1968 latest attestation and the August 1972 G. P. Menger sale of the 601 Delaware real estate to Kenneth L. Wagner is the next bracket worth closing.
• Trademark filing status of Master Chef. No on-site evidence. The Crystalvac precedent (Reg. U.S. Pat. Off., 1932) suggests USPTO TESS would hold any Master Chef Coffee or Master Chef Instant Coffee registrations if filed.
• “Master Chef Cafe Coffee” (1932) → “Master Chef Coffee” wordmark transition. Substantially narrowed (2026-05-16 newspaper-body sweep): the “Cafe” suffix was already gone by 18 May 1935 — the News “QUALITY H & H PRODUCTS” strip ad reads “H&H MASTER CHEF COFFEE” (no “Cafe”). Window narrowed from December 1932 → 1952 (the previous framing) to December 1932 → May 1935 — at most 2.5 years. This rules out the hypothesis that “Cafe” was retired specifically when Master Chef crossed into grocery retail (since 1935 is the first documented consumer-retail attestation and the “Cafe” is already gone in that ad). Most likely reading now: “Cafe” was the 1932 plant-opening copy’s contextual descriptor (“the Master Chef Cafe Coffee that you enjoy in your favorite restaurants”) rather than a formal wordmark element — the brand name was always “Master Chef Coffee,” and “Cafe” was the descriptor for its institutional/cafe-trade positioning that dropped out as soon as consumer-retail ads ran. The page’s Products list item “Master Chef Café Coffee (1932)” may need re-framing as a descriptor rather than a separate SKU. See Cafe Coffee for the disambiguation note covering the brands-hub roster entry.
• Mi Tierra Café & Bakery and the Cortez family — Master Chef’s documented café-trade customer. Mi Tierra is the clearest hotel/café-trade Master Chef customer documented on this site. Pedro Cortez bought the Toyo Café in San Antonio’s Market Square and renamed it Mi Tierra in 1941 (per the Mi Tierra opens in Market Square timeline event); a 1951 black-and-white photograph of the storefront shows an H and H Master Chef Coffee sign on the building exterior (Mi Tierra Café — Master Chef sign post, Visiting Mi Tierra for the holidays). The painted “MASTER / CHEF / COFFEE” vertical wall sign reappears in the photo montage on the Cortez family’s 2016 “Nuestra Cultura · 75 Años” 75th-anniversary lanyard pass (Al Rendón photography, catalogued at the Witte Museum, 2024 reference post) and is framed and hanging by the north entrance to La Panadería counter as of the 2015 Express-News “Mi Tierra: A San Antonio love story” coverage. Open: (a) when did Mi Tierra adopt Master Chef — at the 1941 founding, or post-WWII alongside the brand’s 1952 grocery-retail expansion? (b) was the Cortez family’s relationship with H&H direct (commercial supply contract, sign-rental, café-trade jobber) or mediated through a Market Square distributor? (c) is there a 1940s–1950s Cortez-family H&H invoice, supply receipt, or sign-rental agreement that would document the commercial relationship? (d) are there other Market Square or downtown San Antonio café-trade Master Chef customers from the same era whose surviving storefront photographs would broaden the documented café-trade customer base beyond Mi Tierra?
• 2016 painted-portrait artwork authorship — Al Rendón or another artist? The sepia-and-burgundy stylized portraits of Pedro and Cruz Cortez set against the Mi Tierra storefront-signage montage (with the “MASTER / CHEF / COFFEE” vertical sign in the upper-right backdrop) first appeared in the Edible San Antonio Aug/Sep 2016 spread, then on the September 2016 “Nuestra Cultura · 75 Años” lanyard press passes, then on the green replica entrance built for the 75th-anniversary celebration. The artwork has been used as Mi Tierra’s anniversary-cycle visual identity without (on this site) a confirmed artist credit. Given that Al Rendón’s own working press pass from that 2016 celebration is now in the Witte’s 50-year retrospective (2024 reference post) and that Rendón has photographed Mi Tierra and the Cortezes for decades, the artwork is plausibly his — a stylization of one of his own Cortez portraits — but it could equally be by another San Antonio artist working from the 1950s archival storefront photograph or licensing Rendón’s work. Research angles: the Witte’s published exhibition catalog or the Mi Cultura — Bringing Shadows Into the Light book (Bruce Shackelford / Katherine Nelson Hall); Rendón’s own studio archive; Edible San Antonio Aug/Sep 2016 masthead credits.

Maxwell House Coffee — 3 open

• Maxwell House at the 1923 / 1932 / 1959 SA retail-pricing milestones. The 1915 column documents the brand in the SA market; later H&H-comparison ads (1923, 1932 plant-opening copy, 1942 wholesale price sheets, 1959 Burpee promotion, 1964 Fredericksburg ad) all involve various competitor brands but Maxwell House is not typically cited by name. Specifically: was Maxwell House mid-1930s onward in SA retail through GF national distribution, and what was its pricing position relative to H&H Blend?
• The 1957 Master Chef Instant ad copy. Does the San Antonio Express Nov 1957 Master Chef Instant launch ad name Maxwell House Instant or Nescafé as comparison points? If so, the ad would document H&H’s explicit competitive framing.
• General Foods archive. GF / Kraft Heinz corporate archives (or the Cheek-Neal predecessor records) may hold market-share data showing 1920s-1960s Maxwell House SA presence — useful for sizing H&H’s regional market against the national leader.

Menger Hotel Coffee — 5 open

• Did “Menger Hotel Coffee” ever exist as a retail wordmark? No on-site primary source documents it. Hypotheses 1 (editorial misclassification) and 2 (institutional coffee at the Menger Hotel, not a distinct retail wordmark) are currently best-supported; Hypothesis 3 (real but undocumented) remains live until a labeled retail tin surfaces.
• What was the H&H coffee actually served at the Menger Hotel? A Menger Hotel menu, breakfast-card, room-service-sheet, or stationery referencing H&H coffee specifically (parallel to the 1951 Mi Tierra storefront photograph showing the Master Chef sign) would document the customer relationship. This is the strongest discriminator between Hypothesis 2 and Hypothesis 3.
• What is “Menger Brand” in the 1932 News feature? The wordmark appears once in primary copy without “Hotel” or “Peaberry” qualifier. Was this a generic family-umbrella designation that included both Menger Peaberry retail and a separate Menger Hotel Coffee SKU? Or was “Menger Brand” a 1932-era rebrand of just Menger Peaberry? A 1933 H&H ad or sales sheet would discriminate.
• Is there a Menger Hotel trademark filing for coffee? No on-site evidence. A USPTO or Texas Secretary of State search for “Menger Hotel” or “Menger Brand” as coffee/beverage trademarks would document any formal filings.
• Should the Brands-index slot be retained? If Hypothesis 1 or 2 holds, item 14 (“Menger Hotel Coffee”) on Brands is editorial inference rather than primary record. The slot may warrant annotation, removal, or merging into the Menger Peaberry entry as a wordmark variant.

Menger Peaberry Coffee — 5 open

• When exactly was the Fancy Peaberry → Menger Peaberry rebrand? The 1920–1923 window is bracketed by the surviving on-site sources but a 1921–1922 H&H ad or sales sheet would tighten it. The rebrand was plausibly tied to Gus P. Menger’s January 1920 takeover of the firm, but the documented evidence chain has a 3-year gap.
• What is the “Menger Brand Peaberry” 1932 variant? The 21 Dec 1932 Delaware Street plant-opening copy uses the three-word “Menger Brand Peaberry” version (with explicit “Brand”). Is this a typographic / copy variant of “Menger Peaberry Coffee” or a deliberate wordmark refresh? A surviving 1932–1934 tin or sales sheet with the “Menger Brand Peaberry” wording would discriminate.
• Was Menger Peaberry rolled into one of the 1942 bulk Peaberry SKUs? The 1942 bulk sheet lists Arrow, Standard, Perfection, Anita Peaberry Blend, and O.S.T. Fancy Santos Peaberry as five distinct peaberry SKUs. Any of these could be the Menger Peaberry recipe under a new name — the Fancy Peaberry → Menger Peaberry → “Standard Peaberry” or “Perfection Peaberry” trajectory is plausible. An intermediate 1933–1941 price sheet would help discriminate.
• Did Menger Peaberry continue as a hotel/restaurant SKU after 1932? Menger Hotel Coffee is a sibling Menger-named line specifically for hotel/restaurant trade. Menger Peaberry may have been folded into the hotel/restaurant channel under the Menger Hotel banner, or retired entirely from retail while continuing as a Menger Hotel ingredient. A 1933–1942 hotel-trade sales sheet would clarify.
• Is the postcard quartet (Blend / Sam Houston / Menger Peaberry / Broncho) dated? The postcard is undated but the four-brand combination is consistent with a mid-1920s to early-1930s window — after the 1920–1923 rebrand to Menger Peaberry, before the 1932+ Menger Peaberry attrition. A dated copy or a printer’s mark would anchor the postcard chronologically.

Metropolis Coffee — 3 open

• Why the 64¢ → 34¢ price drop? The largest documented Morrison-era column price drop on this site (~47%). Genuine market repositioning, commodity-price collapse, or a 1915 manufacturers-page printing error that never got corrected?
• Was Metropolis a Morrison brand? The 1915 column’s non-Morrison neighbors (Sunset, Mrs. Rorer’s, Maxwell House) and Metropolis’s position directly between El Merito and Sunset suggest Metropolis may sit on the boundary between the “Morrison-era house names” cluster and the non-Morrison cluster.
• Name derivation. “Metropolis of the Southwest” trade copy for San Antonio is documented elsewhere — but no surviving Metropolis advertising on this site connects the brand name to the city.

Misa Coffee — 3 open

• August 1917 disappearance. Misa was a named flagship in April 1917 and gone from the August 1917 wholesale roster. Was it quietly discontinued during the 307 N. Medina consolidation, rebranded into another line, or pulled under WWI supply pressure? No documented successor; no formal discontinuation notice has surfaced.
• Pre-1914 Morrison origin. Misa is absent from the 1912 and 1915 sugar-and-coffee market columns where Wesco, Broncho, Border, Juanita, Auto Blend, El Merito, and Metropolis appear. Was Misa introduced between Aug 1912 and Dec 1914 — and if so, why was it elevated to flagship tier by April 1917 only to vanish four months later?
• “Misa Brand Coffee” trade dress. The 1914 page-44 caption pairs the brand with cartouche lettering visible in the line art. An in-hand Morrison or early-H&H Misa pack would document the actual trade dress.

O.S.T. Old Spanish Trail Coffee — 3 open

• No advertising, label art, or physical specimens yet identified in the project record.
• Is O.S.T. the same product as Broncho, or a separate brand that shared Western trade-dress?
• The 1942 bulk-line entry “O.S.T. Fancy Santos Peaberry” — was this a premium peaberry grade sold under the OST name, and if so, what tins or bags carried the OST mark?

Sam Houston Coffee — 6 open

• When was Sam Houston introduced? The brand is named in the 28 Nov 1926 Largest Coffee Plant roster but is not in the 19 Aug 1917 wholesale roster, so introduction is bracketed to 1917–1926. A H&H ad or sales sheet from 1918–1925 would tighten the launch year.
• Why did Sam Houston disappear by 1942? Three hypotheses: (a) deliberate retirement (the brand was dropped); (b) wordmark consolidation into “H and H Coffee” umbrella alongside the parallel H and H Blend → H and H Coffee transition; (c) shift to an institutional / hotel / restaurant-only SKU that doesn’t surface in retail ads. The Witte Museum 4-lb pail (reference photography) could be a clue toward (c) if dated post-1935. Exit window narrowed (2026-05-16): the documented retail run now extends to 16 July 1938, narrowing the disappearance window to mid-1938 → March 1942 (~3.5 years, not 7). The 1938 price-tier role (22¢ value tier alongside H&H Coffee’s 26¢) suggests that if the brand was retired into the H&H Coffee umbrella, the value-tier slot may have been absorbed into BIG VALUE (1942 wholesale sheet’s 100% pure 4-lb bucket) or into the M. Chef Blend B tier — both undocumented as direct successors.
• Mid-1937 mixed signal: the Light “Plant output” omission. The 21 Nov 1937 Light article omits Sam Houston (“H and H San Antonio and Texas Girl coffees”) while the 3 Nov 1937 News trade feature names Sam Houston as “premium.” Best read as flagship-focused excerpting rather than mid-November retirement (the July 1938 attestations confirm the brand was still active eight months later). But the Light omission might foreshadow a 1937-1938 marketing-emphasis shift away from Sam Houston that culminated in the 1938-1942 exit.
• Did Sam Houston have a Flav-O-Tainer wartime packaging? The three documented Flav-O-Tainer ads (1942–43) reference only H and H Drip Grind. Whether a parallel Sam Houston wartime bag existed is undocumented; the post-1935 silence makes it unlikely but not impossible.
• What does the 1934 “30 Successful Years” piece say about Sam Houston? The 12 Oct 1934 source is cited but the on-site treatment is brief; a closer look at that source might surface the brand’s mid-1930s positioning relative to H and H Blend and Texas Girl.
• Is the “Sam Houston Coffee” wordmark trademark-filed? No on-site evidence either way. A USPTO or Texas Secretary of State filing search would document the trademark status; Crystalvac is documented as “Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.” so the same filing systems should hold any Sam Houston registration.

San Jose Coffee (compound blend) — 4 open

• No advertising, label art, or physical specimens yet identified.
• What San Jose design mark was used? (Original USPTO drawing not yet retrieved.)
• What was the cereal component — rye, barley, or another roasted grain?
• Whether the brand reached sustained retail or was a specialty/wholesale-only line is undocumented.

Spoon Coffee — 4 open

• Is the Morrison-acquired claim correct? The Brands-index footnote [^1] commits to it but no on-site primary source names Spoon among Morrison labels. A pre-1917 Morrison advertisement, trade-card, or sales sheet naming Spoon would settle Hypothesis 1. The recovered 1923 blurb (paper-lined carton with tea-spoon premium giveaway) reads as 1920s grocery-promotion trade-dress, weakening Hypothesis 1 relative to Hypothesis 2 but not ruling it out.
• Why did Spoon disappear after 1923 while paired packs in the same spread (Border, Texco, Broncho) continued? Border and Broncho both ran cup-and-saucer premium giveaways in the same 1923 campaign and survived into later rosters; only Spoon’s tea-spoon premium did not get a second campaign. The 1926 “Largest Coffee Plant” roster three years later is the next H&H roster on this site and Spoon is gone — consistent with a single-campaign promotion that wasn’t repeated.
• What is the spoon device? The downward-pointing spoon between the two banner-cartouches is a literal reference to the in-carton tea-spoon premium. A Texas Secretary of State trademark filing for the spoon-device mark (separate from the wordmark) could exist in 1920s filings.
• How many tea-spoons survive in the wild? The premium was packed in every carton in 1923; surviving Spoon-Coffee-marked teaspoons might exist in San Antonio collections as a parallel collectible to the cup-and-saucer premiums Border and Broncho offered.

Texas Girl Coffee — 6 open

• “Texas Girl Coffee” in Amarillo, March 1931 — predates H&H launch by 2.5 years. The Amarillo Globe-Times of 27 March 1931 (Monarch Grocery price list, 3011 W. 6th) lists TEXAS GIRL COFFEE Lb. 23¢ alongside H & H COFFEE Pound 37¢. H&H’s Texas Girl is documented launching in October 1933 in San Antonio — this Amarillo listing predates that by 2.5 years. Open question: Is this a separate roaster using the same name, an H&H regional pre-launch, or an earlier H&H Texas Girl brand that was later reformulated for the 1933 launch? If it’s H&H: the 1931 price (23¢/lb) vs. H&H Blend (37¢/lb) would be consistent with Texas Girl’s established role as a lower-price tier. Source: 1931-03-27-the-amarillo-globe-times-fri-mar-27-1931.
• Namesake confirmed — question closed. What does the “niece” naming claim actually refer to? Helen Hoffmann of 126 W. Agarita, daughter of Wm. R. Hoffmann Sr., niece of Gus P. Menger — confirmed by the 10 Sep 1937 The News social column. See the page lede.
• Was Texas Girl Crystalvac-packed? Period copy doesn’t mention it explicitly. The 1933 launch was cellophane-bag; the 1935 “baby package” repackage co-launched with Sam Houston Crystalvac but is described separately. No Crystalvac-marked Texas Girl specimen surfaces in the collection or reference photography.
• Was Texas Girl Flav-O-Tainer-packed during WWII? All three 1942–43 Flav-O-Tainer ads brand the contents as H and H Drip Grind. Whether a parallel Texas Girl wartime bag existed is undocumented; the 1942 price sheet lists Texas Girl as a package SKU but doesn’t specify packaging format.
• What is the latest documented Texas Girl retail attestation? The 1960 corporate product roster is the latest. With H&H independently-owned only through the 1962 Continental of Chicago acquisition (HH-CLIP-1987-0002), a 1961–1962 ad or sales sheet would establish whether Texas Girl was still on shelves at the moment of sale, and a 1963+ ad would document whether Continental retained the brand post-acquisition.
• What is the Texas Girl wordmark trademark-filing status? Partially resolved. Serial No. 304,143, “Texas Girl,” Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co., San Antonio, Tex.; coffee; pending Week Ending October 21, 1930 (Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, Nov 1930, p. 677). Whether this application resulted in a formal registration (grant number) has not yet been confirmed from the annual Index of Trade-Marks volumes for 1930–1932.

Companies (37 pages)

1942 H&H Wholesale Price Sheets (2 March 1942) — 7 open

• What is “SAN ANTONIO COFFEE” on the H&H 1942 package sheet? The artifact alt-text reads the section header as “SAN ANTONIO Coffee” with cup-and-saucer premium variant. San Antonio Coffee Co. was a separately-owned San Antonio roasting firm in 1932 (roasters of ALL GOLD, per the 25 Mar 1932 Light Fresh Coffee cooperative ad). Was H&H’s 1942 “SAN ANTONIO COFFEE” line:
  • An H&H-acquired brand from the San Antonio Coffee Co. (parallel to the 1917 Morrison acquisition)?
  • An H&H-created brand named for the city, distinct from the Coffee Co.?
  • A mis-transcription of “SAM HOUSTON COFFEE” (the typewritten letterforms are partially faded; in-hand verification recommended)?

  Resolution would either add a new acquired-brand-line to the H&H corporate timeline (parallel to the Morrison story) or correct the documented-absence claim for Sam Houston that several recent brand pages assert.

  Side finding (2026-05-16 newspaper-body sweep): the 21 Nov 1937 San Antonio Light “Plant output is increased” article uses the phrase “H and H San Antonio and Texas Girl coffees” attributed to Gus P. Menger. This 1937 phrasing could be parsed as (a) “H and H [city-name-adjectival] San Antonio coffees” (i.e., H&H’s San-Antonio-roasted line generically) or as (b) “[H and H] [San Antonio Coffee] and [Texas Girl Coffee]” (i.e., SAN ANTONIO Coffee as a discrete wordmark alongside Texas Girl, parallel to the 1942 sheet’s discrete SKU). Reading (b) weakly supports the “H&H-created brand named for the city” sub-hypothesis above. The phrasing is ambiguous in isolation but worth flagging as the earliest possible attestation of “SAN ANTONIO” used as a separable H&H brand wordmark.

• What does “M. Chef Blend A vs. Blend B” mean? The 1942 sheet documents two distinct Master Chef tiers (A 25¢/lb and B 27¢/lb in 1-lb bags; A 73¢ and B 76¢ in 2½-lb jars). The 2¢/lb gap is meaningful — possibly a recipe variation, a quality-tier marker, or a regional / contract variation. No on-site source after 1942 documents the A/B distinction.
• What does “O.S.T.” stand for in the specialty-pail Fancy Santos Peaberry line? Possibilities include a customer-named line (an institutional buyer’s initials), a regional designation (Old Spanish Trail? Out of San Antonio Texas?), or a quality-tier abbreviation. No corroborating source on this site.
• What does the “Sue 107” red-pencil notation next to the 3-lb ANITA bucket mean? A customer name + invoice number? An inventory mark? A sales note? The red pencil suggests an in-period working notation rather than archival annotation.
• The “BLUE BIRD” entry has two descriptive lines (“Fcy. Bourb. Fcy Santos” and “Bourb. Fcy. Flatbean Santos”) but only one price line (19½¢). Are these two distinct blends sold at the same price, or one blend with a continuation descriptor across two typewriter lines?
• Why is the bulk sheet restricted to “FOR TEXAS ONLY”? Out-of-state distribution may have required different pricing (freight, duties, dealer agreements). A companion non-Texas bulk sheet, if it exists, would document the broader regional H&H wholesale economics.
• What is the relationship between the cup-and-saucer premium SKUs across the 1942 portfolio? SAN ANTONIO, ANITA, TEXAS GIRL, and TEXCO all have variants with cup-and-saucer or related ceramic premiums. The format echoes the 1923 Border and Broncho premium-pail business model. Were all the 1942 H&H “C&S” lines part of a single ceramic-premium-supply contract? A 1940s supplier invoice or china-supply contract would document.

American Can Company — 4 open

• Which specific artifact records document the Canco base/lid mark? Physical inspection confirms the mark exists; it needs to be photographed and transcribed into the artifact pages for HH-COLL-0000-0008 (Master Chef 3 lb), HH-COLL-2008-0001 (Master Chef 1 lb), and the H&H Blend tins.
• Did H&H run atmospheric or vacuum tin seaming (or both)? Determines whether the 08 or 08C variant was on the floor.
• When did the American Can supply relationship begin and end? Did it displace New Orleans Can Company or serve a different format tier? Do the date codes on the Canco-marked tins help bound this?
• Are any Canco seamers still at 601 Delaware or traceable through the 1962–1972 disposition chain?

Aviation Coffee Company — 4 open

• When was Aviation Coffee Company founded?
• Was A. A. Walker a sole proprietor or part of a larger enterprise?
• Did the company ever reopen after the 1937 fire?
• What brands did Aviation Coffee sell, and in what geographic territory?

Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company — 5 open

• Did H&H source Crystalvac jars directly from Ball-Muncie post-1936, or via the former Three Rivers facility under Ball ownership?
• When did the Ball-supplied era end (Owens-Illinois appears later)?
• 1946 anti-trust suit — Texas-side disposition documented (Nov 1, 1947 plaintiff-requested dismissal); Indiana refiling disposition open. S.D. Indiana federal court records 1947–1962 would resolve.
• U.S. Supreme Court sale order — execution. Tips alleged in November 1947 that the Supreme Court (per the 1945 US v. Hartford-Empire decree enforcement) had ordered Ball + Hartford-Empire + Owens-Illinois to sell the Three Rivers plant. Whether the sale ever happened and to whom is undocumented.
• George A. Ball Manufacturing Co. vs. Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Co. — corporate structure. The 1936 clipping uses “George A. Ball Manufacturing”; the 1946 lawsuit petition uses “Ball Bros. Co.” Were these distinct subsidiaries of the Ball family corporate group, sequential renamings, or shorthand for the same parent? A Ball Corporation historical-records search would resolve.

Broggi Advertising Agency — 4 open

• Broggi’s founding year and contact details from San Antonio directories
• Did Broggi succeed Pitluk Advertising Company as the primary H&H agency, or were they parallel/specialized?
• What other H&H ad work did Broggi produce — print, billboard, TV?
• Surviving audio recordings of the four Broggi spots

Continental Coffee Company — 3 open

• Did Continental keep the Hoffmann-Hayman or H&H brand names in market for any period after the 1962 acquisition?
• Was the San Antonio Continental the same entity as the Chicago Continental Coffee Company that Sysco acquired in the 1990s? If yes, H&H assets ended up in Sysco.
• When did Continental’s San Antonio operations close — the 1975 vehicle sale suggests possible wind-down, but no closure document has been located.

David G. Evans Coffee Company — 4 open

• Founding date and full corporate history of David G. Evans Coffee Co.
• Exact period of the Evans–H&H spice supplier relationship
• Were any H&H spices packed by other suppliers, or was Evans the exclusive packer?
• Surviving Evans-related artifacts beyond the 1.5 oz pepper tin

Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway (GH&SA) — 3 open

• The exact date of GH&SA absorption into Southern Pacific
• Whether H&H’s green-coffee routing is documented in SP or T&NO freight records from the 1930s–1950s
• The GH&SA’s role in delivering Morrison Coffee Company’s 1914 Fort Sam Houston carload order

George W. Mitchell Construction — 2 open

• Exact construction dates (groundbreaking, topping out, completion) for the H&H plant
• Surviving construction photographs or specifications

Globe Folding Box Company — 3 open

• How long did the Globe supplier relationship run beyond 1923?
• Which specific H&H product lines used Globe cartons (Tea, Spices, Cocoa all used folding cartons — was Globe the supplier for all, or only some?)
• Did Globe survive the mid-century carton-industry consolidation?

H. W. Taylor Company — 3 open

• Was Taylor a direct tea supplier to H&H, or a quality benchmark referenced in copy?
• H. W. Taylor’s corporate history — early 20th-century Philadelphia tea trade
• Other H&H tea-line references to Taylor in later years (1930s tea ads, 1940s Flav-O-Tainer-era copy)

Hartford-Empire Co. — 4 open

• United States v. Hartford-Empire Co. (1945) — local press coverage and decree-enforcement record. The federal anti-trust decision against the patent pool predates the 1946 TRG shareholders’ suit by a year. Period San Antonio coverage of the US v. Hartford-Empire decision is undocumented on this site, as is the post-1945 decree-enforcement record (which Tips claimed in November 1947 included a Supreme Court order to sell the Three Rivers plant).
• 1946 anti-trust suit — Texas disposition documented (Nov 1, 1947 dismissal); Indiana refiling disposition open. S.D. Indiana federal court records 1947–1962 and Indianapolis Star / News coverage would resolve.
• “Ball clause” exception. Period press references a “Ball clause” carving Ball Brothers out of the Hartford-Empire patent license structure — not yet anchored to a primary source on this site.
• R. T. Bufford Jr. — biographical record. Hartford-Empire secretary and counsel; the period press identifies him as the witness who read the “perpetual thorn” memorandum. Otherwise undocumented here.

Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company — 9 open

• What was the Merchants Coffee Co., and who owned it before 1912? W. E. Hayman’s earlier business brought into the 1912 merger; details on its operations, address, and customer base before the merger are thin on this site.
• When did the company name shift from “Hoffmann-Hayman” to “H and H Coffee Company”? Substantially narrowed (2026-05-21) — the shift is editorial/popular usage, not a corporate rename. Two distinct registers run in parallel through the late-1940s and 1950s, indicating the legal corporate name persisted while popular and trade usage shortened. Popular-press / company-byline usage as “H&H Coffee Company”: January 1947 fire coverage in both the San Antonio Light (“Firemen Get 15 Alarms in Day,” HH-CLIP-1947-0001) and San Antonio Express-News (“Coffee Firm Damaged,” HH-CLIP-1947-0003) reports the company as “H&H Coffee Company” at 601 Delaware; the May 1949 Light business feature (“$315 Million Output Predicted,” HH-CLIP-1949-0002) names “H&H Coffee Co.” with Gus Menger as president; the 3 March 1955 help-wanted classified is signed “H. and H. COFFEE CO.” at 601 Delaware (HH-CLIP-1955-0002); the 1959 Light “Top Coffee Plant” feature shows exterior signage reading “H-H Master Chef COFFEE CO.” (HH-CLIP-1959-0002). Municipal / formal-record usage as “Hoffman-Hayman Coffee Company”: Ordinance 27,684 of 25 June 1959 awards the San Antonio jail coffee contract to “HOFFMAN-HAYMAN COFFEE COMPANY” at the same time popular press was using H&H — and the 1962 Continental Coffee acquisition is recorded against “Hoffmann-Hayman” (per [HH-CLIP-1987-0002](/galleries/newspaper/#hh-clip-1987-0002), the T. J. Menger feature). The 1942 wholesale price sheets headed “H AND H COFFEE” sit in between, in a third register: trade-customer-facing copy. Reading: the shortened “H&H” / “H and H Coffee Co.” form was in active popular and self-promotional use from at least 1942 and consistently through 1959, but the legal corporate name remained “Hoffmann-Hayman” through to the 1962 Continental sale — there is no separate corporate-rename event to date. The remaining open thread is whether a Texas Secretary of State filing during this window formalized a DBA / assumed-name registration for “H and H Coffee Co.” separate from the chartered Hoffmann-Hayman entity.
• What role did J. C. Neeley play beyond the first-year directorate?
• What was the “Hoffmann-Hayman” trademark/branding policy for Cafe vs. retail wordmarks? Master Chef’s 1932 plant-opening copy specifically reads “Master Chef Cafe Coffee” — the “Cafe” descriptor drops out by the 1952 grocery introduction. Whether “Cafe” was a wordmark-suffix or contextual descriptor is undocumented; see Master Chef Coffee Open Questions.
• Was there a factory or distribution point in Houston? At least two collection tins carry side-panel text reading “H and H Coffee in San Antonio and Houston”: the founding 1-lb keywind tin (purchased May 2014; vacuum-packed, post-1932 era label style echoing the later paper bags, probably 1935–1945) and the 28oz family tin (purchased Jan 2016). Master Chef price cards sourced from Houston date to the 1950s. J. Aron & Company (green-coffee importer with Houston/New Orleans/New York offices) is documented as an H&H supplier in 1923. Hypothesis: a Gulf Coast warehouse/distribution hub tied to green-coffee receiving via the Port of Houston, forwarding to San Antonio for roasting — rather than a separate roasting plant. No primary source yet documents the Houston address, exact period, or operational function. Research angles: Houston city directories; Texas Secretary of State filings under Hoffmann-Hayman; freight tariffs or railroad waybills naming a Houston warehouse; labeled shipping cases addressed from Houston; J. Aron invoice records.
• Acquisition terms and brand survival for the 1962 Continental Coffee transition. The acquisition year is now confirmed (T. J. Menger 1987 obituary), but the deal terms (asset sale vs. stock acquisition) and which H&H brands survived under Continental are still undocumented on this site. Master Chef, Master Chef Instant, H and H Coffee, and Texas Girl all carry forward into the 1960 corporate roster; whether any of the four reached the post-1972 retail shelf under Continental branding is the open question.
• What is the SAN ANTONIO COFFEE 1942 SKU’s relationship to the separately-owned San Antonio Coffee Co.? The 1932 Light “Fresh Coffee Cooperative Ad” documents “San Antonio Coffee Co.” as a separate San Antonio roasting firm (roasters of ALL GOLD). The 1942 H&H package sheet lists “SAN ANTONIO COFFEE” as an H&H SKU with cup-and-saucer premium variant. Was this an H&H acquisition from the separate firm, an H&H-created city-named brand, or a typewriter misread of “Sam Houston Coffee”? See 1942 H&H Wholesale Price Sheets Open Questions.
• Primary source confirmation needed for: 1914 Ft. Sam Houston order. (1917 Morrison acquisition now anchored by the 28 January 1917 Express announcement; Broncho specifically named in the announcement’s five-brand list. 1962 Continental of Chicago acquisition now anchored by HH-CLIP-1987-0002, the T. J. Menger feature article — no longer dependent on the 2017 GW Mitchell blog secondary source.)
• What drove each major packaging-material shift? H&H’s retail containers moved through at least three material regimes across the company’s life: (1) tin cans in the 1920s (New Orleans Can Co., American Can Co. documented as suppliers); (2) glass jars (Crystalvac, 1932) — the Crystalvac Jars page notes “tin prices rose” as a factor, but was that the primary driver, or did housewife preference, reuse-economy marketing, or Three Rivers Glass’s South Texas pitch matter equally?; (3) a mid-century return to paper bags (Flav-O-Tainer, 1942, documented as WWII metal rationing) and vacuum metal cans (1937 expansion added vacuum-can machinery alongside the Crystalvac line, so tin and glass ran simultaneously for a period). What is unclear: whether H&H fully abandoned glass after the war, what drove the post-war balance between cans and bags, and whether the “tin prices” origin story for Crystalvac is from a primary source or editorial inference. Research angles: trade-press context on 1930s tin-price indices; primary H&H advertising copy that frames the Crystalvac switch explicitly; 1940s–1950s H&H ads distinguishing can vs. bag vs. glass SKUs; compare Crystalvac Jars open question #3 on the glass-production endpoint.

Huntley Manufacturing Company — 3 open

• What years did the Huntley supplier relationship run beyond 1923?
• Was the 1932 Delaware Street factory’s new roasting line also Huntley/Monitor equipment, or a different supplier?
• Surviving Huntley/Monitor machinery from H&H (sold, scrapped, or sitting in a barn somewhere?)

International-Great Northern Railroad (I. & G. N.) — 4 open

• Precise location and surviving records for the I. & G. N. Passenger Depot (the anchor landmark for the 307 N. Medina block)
• Whether H&H’s Laredo distribution extended into Mexico proper, or terminated at the border with a Mexican distributor
• Whether M. R. Perron (the I. & G. N.–Laredo salesman) appears in any other H&H documentation
• When H&H’s active use of the I. & G. N. corridor ended — the railroad remains the documented route through 1917; the transition to truck delivery (1930s–1940s highway era) would have displaced it

J. Aron & Company, Inc. — 3 open

• Specific years of the J. Aron–H&H supply relationship
• Volume / share of H&H green-coffee buys that came through Aron (vs. direct Central/South American sourcing claimed in some H&H copy)
• Surviving correspondence, invoices, or contracts

Macro-Sea — 5 open

• Provenance records — narrative expanded 2026-05-27 with MOCA/AZPM public sources; purchase paperwork, freight BOL, and delivery photos still to file in raw-archives/records/. See mobile-pool-history.
• Macro-Sea relationship status — has there been direct designer contact (David Belt or Macro-Sea staff) about the prototype’s history and intended use? Worth re-establishing for any future activation.
• Activation feasibility — what does activating the prototype as a working pool require (water hookup, drainage, filtration, code clearance)? Decision in roadmap Phase 0 block F; execution in Phase 3 south-face courtyard.
• Interpretive framing — if the pool becomes a museum / exhibit piece rather than an active pool, what’s the curatorial narrative? “How Brooklyn taught us to think about industrial-shell reuse” is one direction; “the cultural lineage of the H&H second life” is another.
• Other Macro-Sea works that may be relevant precedent — the Park Avenue Tunnel summer activations, Glassphemy (Brooklyn glass-bottle smashing public-art piece), New Lab, and other Belt-led projects. Worth a short reference list for the museum / vision narrative.

Merchants Coffee Company — 3 open

• Founding year: was Merchants Coffee incorporated before or after the February 1910 Western Coffee foreclosure? The April 1910 attestation places the gap at two months or less.
• Did Hayman acquire Western Coffee’s physical assets through the foreclosure? Bexar County deed and chattel-mortgage records 1910–1912 would show a title transfer if so.
• Surviving Merchants Coffee artifacts — any tins, ads, or letterheads from the pre-merger period?

Merchants’ Coffee Co. of N.O., Ltd. — 4 open

• When was Merchants’ Coffee Co. of N.O., Ltd. incorporated in Louisiana? No charter notice has been found.
• Did the company survive beyond 1908? No later documentation found.
• Did B. C. Casanas have any prior coffee industry history in New Orleans?
• Were Alameda and Yuno brand names derived from place names (Alameda being common in CA/TX; Yuno possibly a phonetic variant of a proper noun)?

Merchants’ Transfer Company — 6 open

• When was Merchants’ Transfer Company incorporated? No charter notice has been found in SA papers.
• Who were the principals / officers?
• When did the Western Coffee (El Paso) distribution relationship begin and end?
• Relationship to Merchants Coffee Company? Both firms operated in SA at the same time (c.1909–1912) and share the “Merchants’” prefix. The 15 December 1912 San Antonio Light Fredericksburg road bonus subscription list (HH-CLIP-1912-0012) lists both “Merchants’ Coffee Co.” and “Merchants’ Transfer Co.” as separate subscribers alongside Hoffmann-Hayman and Morrison Coffee — direct confirmation they are distinct entities. No documented connection exists between them: different industries, no shared principals or addresses in any known source. “Merchants Transfer Company” was a generic name used nationally: Kansas City (1870), West Virginia (1917, per HH-CLIP-1917-0011), and SA all had firms of this name. The one scenario still worth testing: if W. E. Hayman used Merchants’ Transfer as his coffee delivery agent before the 1912 merger, the shared name might reflect deliberate pairing — but Merchants Coffee had its own horse-based delivery operation by late 1911, making this less likely. See Merchants Coffee Company.
• What other coffee or grocery firms used Merchants’ Transfer as a distribution agent?
• Did the company survive past 1916?

Morris, Nooman, and Wilson — 3 open

• Full corporate history of Morris, Nooman, and Wilson
• Other San Antonio commercial / industrial projects from the firm in the 1930s
• Architectural drawings or specifications for the H&H plant — does any archive (UTSA, Bexar County, Witte) hold them?

Morrison Coffee Company — 4 open

• Morrison’s founding year (pre-1912 at minimum, but earliest documentary attestation on this site is 1912)
• The Pride of the Ranch / Juanita relationship — same brand, sub-brand, or variant labeling?
• What happened to Harvest Jubilee and Club Chocolate after the 1917 acquisition?
• Who were the Morrison principals — the John Green / Johnnie Morrison name pair suggests a Morrison family connection

New Orleans Can Company — 3 open

• Specific years of the New Orleans Can–H&H supplier relationship
• Which surviving H&H tins carry New Orleans Can vs. American Can marks on the base? (Cross-reference with Simpson & Doeller labels and RC Can — St. Louis bases)
• New Orleans Can’s full corporate history

Owens-Illinois Glass Company — 5 open

• Did O-I supply H&H before the Ball acquisition of Three Rivers (1936), as a parallel supplier?
• Or was O-I a Ball-era / post-Three-Rivers replacement?
• Full range of O-I plant codes that appear on H&H Crystalvac jars (Plant 7 = Alton is documented; others?)
• Did O-I supply both clear and amber Crystalvac variants, or were the amber jars a different supplier?
• Corporate lineage: What is the history of Owens-Illinois Glass becoming Owens-Corning, and where is each company today? (Common collector confusion — the two names share “Owens” but appear to be distinct entities: O-I a glass-container firm, Owens-Corning a 1938 fiberglass joint-venture with Corning Glass Works. Needs primary-source verification of the actual relationship and current corporate status of both.)

Perry L. King Auditing Company — 3 open

• Years of the Perry L. King–H&H auditing relationship
• Did Perry L. King continue past the 1932 Delaware Street factory build, or was the relationship pre-1932-era?
• The R. W. Creager Company appears in the 5 March 1932 News “Income tax reports due” sidebar near a separate H&H story — was Creager a successor or competitor to Perry L. King?

Pitluk Advertising Company — 3 open

• How long did the Pitluk–H&H account run? Did Pitluk continue placing H&H ads through the 1930s?
• The Broggi Advertising Agency (3107 Broadway) appears on the 1961 Master Chef advertising-record disc — was Broggi a successor agency to Pitluk, a parallel agency, or unrelated?
• Other San Antonio firms Pitluk worked with in the 1920s

San Antonio Jail (Bexar County) — 4 open

• Was the 1959-60 award a one-off or part of a multi-year tenure? Successor ordinances for FY 1960-61, FY 1961-62, etc. would document whether H&H held the jail-coffee account across multiple fiscal years and how it intersected the 1962 Continental sale. Source to consult: San Antonio City Clerk’s Office, Ordinance Book I.I. and successor volumes.
• What brand was delivered under the contract? The ordinance specifies “all requirements of coffee” but not the SKU. Master Chef is the most likely fulfillment line (institutional / cafe-trade grade, documented from 1932 onward); a Sam Houston or Texas Girl bulk variant is also plausible.
• What were the pricing and volume terms? The minutes excerpt records only the proposal-acceptance action; pricing, monthly volumes, and specifications are in the full Ordinance Book I.I. p. 245 text, not yet pulled.
• Earlier supply history. The 1959 ordinance is the earliest primary-source attestation; site lore suggests the relationship predated it. Earlier municipal records, Bexar County purchase orders, or H&H ledgers would document.

Simpson & Doeller Company — 4 open

• Specific years Simpson & Doeller worked with H&H
• Which other H&H tin lines used Simpson & Doeller marks (Master Chef? Sam Houston? Texas Girl?)
• Did the firm produce the printed label or the lithographed tin body itself?
• Full corporate history — original founders, Baltimore directory citations

Southern Pacific Railroad — 3 open

• Surveying — Union Pacific / Southern Pacific ROW records. The “G — M — A” pavement marker at the 601 Delaware entry gate may correspond to surveying done for the rail-siding right-of-way; ROW survey records would document.
• Siding lifecycle. When did the H&H rail siding go out of operational use? The 1972 G. P. Menger real-estate sale presumably ended H&H-side siding use; Continental Coffee Company’s 1972-1975 occupancy may have retained siding access; modern UP traffic does not stop at 601 Delaware.
• Period photographs. Are there documented period photographs showing the rail siding in active H&H use (coffee bags being unloaded, etc.)? UTSA Special Collections or the Witte Museum might hold such images.

Stevens Outdoor Advertising — 4 open

• Stevens Outdoor Advertising founding year and address — company confirmed in 1974; earlier directory citations still needed
• H&H billboard connection — lore not yet supported by a primary source; see Stanford P. Stevens KB page for hypothesis analysis
• Other surviving Stevens-painted signs or billboards — like-to-like comparison target for the Master Chef sign
• Relationship to the parallel agency engagements with Pitluk and (later) Broggi — did Stevens handle outdoor/billboard work while Pitluk/Broggi handled print and broadcast?

Tea and Coffee Trade Journal — 3 open

• Other 1910s-1960s H&H mentions. Beyond the May 1928 trademark listings, what other Trade Journal coverage names H&H? A subject-index search for “Hoffmann-Hayman” across the journal’s full run would catalog corporate-news mentions, advertising buys, equipment-purchase notices, etc.
• The 1922 first edition of All About Coffee — different chapters on roasting equipment. Confirmed via library/purchase-list.md as P1 target; resolving this would close the most-frequently-cited research gap in the trade-reference thread.
• Institutional repository. NYPL (New York Public Library, Schwarzman building) is the most likely full-run repository; Hagley Museum and the Library of Congress are confirmed alternatives. Identifying the most accessible institutional copy is a research-logistics question.

Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) — 3 open

• The Minnie Menger Handbook entry. Nancy Draves proposed authoring this in January 2019; KB has no documentation of submission or publication. Status check: has the entry been written, submitted, or rejected?
• A Handbook entry on Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company itself. Nancy Draves mentioned this as a future possibility in 2019. If filed by a TSHA member, the company’s regional-history significance (60+ year operation, four-generation family business, Menger-family connection) appears to qualify.
• TSHA membership for the H&H project. Direct project membership would unlock the Southwestern Historical Quarterly archive and the TSHA member-only conference workshops.

Three Rivers Glass Company — 16 open

• Closure date — corporate vs. physical plant. The January 1937 dissolution of the Texas corporation is now anchored to primary record (the 1946 anti-trust petition explicitly says “dissolution in January, 1937”). The physical plant picture is partially in tension: the 21 Nov 1937 Light shows Crystalvac in “wide distribution”; the 2017 Three Rivers Glass Show post asserts Ball “fulfilled existing orders until closing the factory in 1938”; but Tips’s November 1947 court filing per the 1947-11-02 Light “Damage Suit Off” characterizes the defendants as having “not operated [the plant] since” their 1937 physical takeover. Most likely reconciliation: physical possession transferred via the Dec 1936 reorganization → plant ran briefly into late 1937 fulfilling existing orders + processing accumulated inventory → idle from late 1937 onward (with collector “closed in 1938” framing referring to the announced/recognized shutdown rather than the last day of operation). The 1947 court framing is litigation-positioning emphasizing the post-takeover idleness. A 1937–1938 Texas newspaper clipping on the actual final operating day would resolve.
• “Ball found guilty of monopoly behavior.” The 2017 Three Rivers Glass Show post asserts Ball was “found guilty of monopoly behavior, including buying competitors in order to shut them down. Acting on inside information, Ball blocked a government loan to Three Rivers Glass Co. and purchased the company in 1936.” The newly-registered 1946 anti-trust suit (1946-01-03 The News) substantially corroborates the collector framing: former TRG shareholders alleged in U.S. District Court that Hartford-Empire, Ball Bros., and Owens-Illinois had violated the Sherman and Clayton Acts through monopolistic conduct that caused the 1937 dissolution. The 1938 TNEC testimony (1938-12-13 SA Express-News) provides the upstream evidentiary record: Hartford-Empire’s secretary R. T. Bufford Jr. read aloud an internal memorandum calling Three Rivers a “perpetual thorn in the side” of the patent-pool firms and confirmed Hartford-Empire physically removed its machinery from the Three Rivers plant. The 2017 collector phrasing is therefore collector-narrative compressed onto a documented multi-step pattern — not fabrication. What’s still missing: any disposition record for the 1946 suit (settlement, dismissal, trial verdict, judgment amount) and the period press coverage of United States v. Hartford-Empire Co. (1945) as it applied to the post-1937 Ball-owned Three Rivers operation. Federal court records (W.D. Texas, San Antonio Division) for the 1946 docket and 1945–1946 SA newspaper indices would resolve.
• 1946 anti-trust suit — Texas disposition documented; Indiana disposition open. The Texas-side disposition is now anchored: Federal Judge Ben H. Rice Jr. dismissed on plaintiff’s motion 1 November 1947 so the suit could refile in U.S. District Court Indianapolis under Indiana’s 15-year anti-trust SOL (vs. Texas’s 2-year). The Indianapolis refiling’s ultimate outcome (settlement, dismissal, verdict, judgment amount) is undocumented — see 1947 dismissal/refile event. S.D. Indiana federal court records 1947–1962 and 1947–1962 Indianapolis Star / News coverage would resolve. The U.S. Supreme Court had also “ordered” sale of the plant per Tips’s 1947 court statement — that order is the United States v. Hartford-Empire Co. (1945) decree enforcement; whether sale ever happened (and to whom) is undocumented.
• Plaintiff caption shift between 1946 (individual shareholders) and 1947 (corporate plaintiff). The Jan 1946 suit was filed by Tips, Moody, and Rogers individually as “former shareholders.” The Nov 1947 dismissal article frames the plaintiff as “the Three Rivers Glass co.” with Tips as president. The mechanism of that shift isn’t pinned down — corporate reorganization for standing? Loose 1947 Light shorthand? Recaption in the Indiana refiling? Federal docket records would resolve.
• Damages-amount increase: $4.05M (Jan 1946 trebled) → $4.60M (Nov 1947 trebled). ~$550K (~13%) increase between the original Texas filing and the 1947 dismissal article’s stated amount. Possibilities: amended actual-damages base, addition of interest/costs, or per-paper rounding. Federal docket records would resolve.
• W. L. Moody III and Harry R. Rogers — biographical record. Co-plaintiffs in the 1946 suit, characterized as “among more than 50 former shareholders” of the dissolved TRG. Moody is presumably William Lewis Moody III of the prominent Galveston Moody family (Moody National Bank, American National Insurance, Moody-Stewart), making the suit a notable cross-Texas-elite alignment with Tips and Rogers. Rogers is otherwise undocumented on this site. KB stubs for both are candidates if either turns up in additional H&H-adjacent sources.
• Tips Glass Sales Corporation — corporate structure. The 1936-08-07 Light names “Tips Glass Sales corporation, which sells all glass containers manufactured by the Three Rivers Glass factory” as a distinct entity with Tips as president. Whether Tips Glass Sales was a wholly-owned subsidiary of TRG, an exclusive-dealer entity owned separately by Tips and other principals, or an arm’s-length contractual sales agent isn’t pinned down. A Texas Secretary of State corporate-filings search for “Tips Glass Sales” 1933–1937 would resolve.
• Reconciling the 1936 sales surge with the multi-year close-down. 1936-11-14 Courier-Gazette says Three Rivers “again resumed operations after a three year close-down” — pointing to a roughly 1933 → late-1936 plant closure. 1936-08-07 Light reports Tips Glass Sales sales through Aug 1, 1936 more than double 1935 totals. Best read: Tips Glass Sales was selling accumulated factory inventory plus output from a brief 1936 plant burst that the Courier-Gazette caught on the late side. Alternatively, Tips Glass Sales’s “manufactured by the Three Rivers Glass factory” line could be loose 1936 marketing copy that didn’t actually require continuous factory production. A 1933–1936 SA Light / News search for Three Rivers Glass operating-status items would discriminate.
• Crystalvac post-1937 production: the 3 Nov 1937 News documents H&H’s installation of vacuum-can equipment in June 1937 — five months before the Light “wide distribution” Crystalvac mention. Whether the metal-can adoption was a deliberate hedge against TRGCo supply uncertainty under Ball, a separate response to consumer/format trends, or both, is undocumented.
• Plant address and physical layout at Three Rivers (the works site is marked but the structure is gone).
• Production totals and customer breakdown (how much went to H&H vs other Texas bottlers).
• Bastrop, Louisiana plant — operating period. Per 1929-08-09 The Times (Shreveport), TR Glass purchased the Bastrop, LA glass factory (formerly Frost-Whited Investment Co.) in August 1929, with operations to resume fall 1929. The Bastrop plant’s operational lifetime is undocumented — did it continue under TR Glass through the 1936 Ball acquisition? Did Ball Brothers acquire the Bastrop plant along with Three Rivers, or just Three Rivers? Was Bastrop already closed before the 1936 transaction? Louisiana newspaper coverage and Bastrop city directory entries would resolve.
• Charles R. Tips biographical record. Tips evolves from secretary–treasurer (1922) → general manager (by August 1929) → president (by February 1931) over a 9-year span. The 1931 San Saba News and Star piece styles him “Col. Charles R. Tips” (military title not yet documented elsewhere on this site). His role under Ball Brothers post-1936 acquisition is undocumented; whether he stayed on as a Ball employee, retired, or moved to another firm would close a meaningful biographical thread. A Tips KB person page is a candidate stub.
• Sales-office geography 1930+. Per 1930-02-16 SA Light, TR Glass operated sales offices in Three Rivers + San Antonio + Dallas + Oklahoma City + Memphis + New Orleans + Houston by Feb 1930. How long that network operated and which offices Ball Brothers retained post-1936 is undocumented.
• Whether any operational records survive at Ball Corporation archives or the Texas state archives.
• Fuller documentation of the 1936–1937 Ball-overlap production period (when both Three Rivers and Ball marks appear on the same piece — see Ideal Bottling Co. #37 above).

Tips Glass Sales Corporation — 4 open

• Corporate structure. Was Tips Glass Sales a wholly-owned subsidiary of TRG, an exclusive-dealer entity owned separately by Tips and other principals, or an arm’s-length contractual sales agent? A Texas Secretary of State corporate-filings search for “Tips Glass Sales” 1933–1937 would resolve.
• Post-1936 fate. Did Tips Glass Sales survive the Dec 1936 Ball reorganization of the factory? Did it continue selling Ball Glass Corporation output? Was it wound up alongside the dissolved Texas TRG in Jan 1937? Undocumented.
• Other officers / directors. Only Tips’s role (president) is documented in the single available period source.
• Sales territory. The 1936-08-07 report doesn’t specify; presumably overlapped with the multi-state Gulf-and-Southwest territory of TRG itself.

Tucker Coffee Company — 5 open

• Tucker Coffee’s founding year (1920 or 1921 per Spice Mill incorporation notice; the December 1923 Light charter clip may be a re-charter or expansion)
• Hayman’s exact role — investor only, or operating principal?
• End-of-business date — Tucker drops out of the documentary record after the mid-1920s
• The two “A. Walker” entries in the officer list may be a duplicate of “A. B. Walker,” or a separate person
• Whether the H&H–Tucker buyout actually omitted a non-compete (Tim Draves’s open question on the May 2026 call) — Bexar County corporate filings 1920–1921 may resolve

Western Coffee Company of El Paso — 6 open

• Who was F. E. Warren? (Founder or principal of the original El Paso company.)
• When was the F. E. Warren Coffee Company originally incorporated?
• Was the El Paso Western Coffee Co. still operating in SA after 1916?
• Did the 1922 name formalization reflect a genuine business reorganization or was it purely cosmetic?
• Is there any documented direct relationship between this company and the SA Western Coffee Co. (Wedemeyer) — acquisition, brand purchase, or principals in common?
• What happened to the company after 1922? (City directory, trade press searches needed.)

Western Coffee Company of San Antonio — 4 open

• Was SA Western Coffee absorbed by the El Paso Western Coffee Co. (F. E. Warren Coffee Co.)? The “Statesman Coffee” brand overlap (1914 → 1915) is the strongest evidence of a connection.
• Was SA Western Coffee absorbed by Hoffmann-Hayman or Morrison Coffee Co. instead, or did it simply cease operations independently?
• What happened to H. C. Wedemeyer after the 1910 foreclosure?
• Who were the “et al” defendants in the 1910 Hayman suit?

People (32 pages)

A. V. Fitzgerald — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Years of tenure (only the 1934 attestation is in hand; was Fitzgerald with the firm before/after?)
• Specific responsibilities of the “field superintendent” role — territory oversight? Plant operations? Quality control?

Alfred Giles — 3 open

• Exact Giles birth year and English origin city (he arrived in San Antonio c. 1873)
• Whether H&H had any professional relationship with Giles directly, or dealt solely with the Caffarelli Brothers as building owners
• Documentation of the 1909 Menger Hotel addition scope and Giles’s role on that project

Catherine Menger — 3 open

• Vital dates — born 1860, died 1947 per Immigrant Entrepreneurship entry (Julia Brookins, AHA); Bexar County records would confirm exactly
• Primary record confirmation — the daughter-vs-granddaughter resolution is medium confidence; Bexar County records or UIW Menger Family Collection would anchor it
• Maiden name — “Menger-by-birth” confirmed; maiden surname = Menger (same as married name, different family line)

Charles R. Tips — 11 open

• 1946 anti-trust suit — Texas-side disposition documented; Indianapolis refiling open. The Texas filing was voluntarily dismissed 1 Nov 1947 (Judge Ben H. Rice Jr.) so it could refile in U.S. District Court Indianapolis under Indiana’s 15-year anti-trust SOL. Disposition of the Indiana refiling (settlement, verdict, dismissal, judgment amount) is undocumented — S.D. Indiana federal court records 1947–1962 + Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis News coverage would resolve. Tips’s role in the Indiana refiling (continued as plaintiff or plaintiff-corporation president; took the case all the way or withdrew) is also undocumented.
• 1946 anti-trust suit — Texas-side disposition documented; Indianapolis refiling open. The Texas filing was voluntarily dismissed 1 Nov 1947 (Judge Ben H. Rice Jr.) so it could refile in U.S. District Court Indianapolis under Indiana’s 15-year anti-trust SOL. Disposition of the Indiana refiling (settlement, verdict, dismissal, judgment amount) is undocumented — S.D. Indiana federal court records 1947–1962 + Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis News coverage would resolve.
• Post-1947 record. Tips relocated to Dallas (date not pinned) and built The Ambassador Hotel (first retirement hotel in downtown Dallas, per Bagby). His death date, Dallas years in detail, and post-TRG business record beyond the Ambassador are undocumented.
• Post-1937 / pre-1946 record. Tips is in San Antonio in 1946 as lead plaintiff. Was he already in Dallas by then, or still in San Antonio? The 1937–1945 decade is a gap. Dallas city directories 1938–1946 would help.
• Caption shift: individual-shareholder plaintiffs (1946) → corporate plaintiff (1947). Federal docket records would resolve.
• W. L. Moody III and Harry R. Rogers — biographical record. Co-plaintiffs; Moody is presumably of the Galveston Moody family. Rogers undocumented.
• “Col.” military title — origin and authority. Honorific, National Guard, or federal military? A 1928–1931 Texas commission record would discriminate.
• Pre-1913 / pre-1922 career. Tips founded Three Rivers at age 20 (1913) — what was his background before that? Where was he born and raised? A 1900–1910 census trace would establish.
• The Ambassador Hotel, Dallas — confirmation it was built by Tips; operating dates; whether it still stands or has been redeveloped.
• Congressional race details. The race Tips lost to George Parr — district, year, and Garner’s specific role (bank stockholder in what bank?) are not established on this site. Duval County election records would narrow the year.
• George West’s threat to Tips — nature and context undocumented beyond the Bagby account.

Chris M. Jasso — 4 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations beyond 1936
• Exact retirement date
• Scan Jasso letters and roaster drawings from Nancy Draves’s holdings
• Son/grandson Chris Jasso line at 201 Hill Street

Clara H. Allred — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Tenure dates and whether the demonstrator role continued past 1923
• Distinction between “special demonstrator” (Allred) and plain “demonstrator” (Brown) — seniority, scope, or pay?

Dave Crowe — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Years of tenure (earliest is January 1937; latest is October 1938 — range may extend further)
• Whether Crowe’s “cafe department” role continued through the 1940s–1950s Master Chef hotel-trade era

Dr. Rudolph Menger — 3 open

• Cause of death — not found in any web source consulted June 2026. SA newspaper obituary (Light / Express, c. March 17–18, 1921) not yet retrieved — paywalled on Newspapers.com; Portal to Texas History bot-blocked during June 2026 session.
• Middle initial “A” — Ancestry cites “Rudolph A. Menger”; source of the initial not confirmed.
• Role at Hoffmann-Hayman — the 1934 anniversary copy doesn’t list him as an officer; he died in 1921 before the 601 Delaware era. Any direct H&H involvement would have been in the early years.

Dr. William J. Schlosser — 3 open

• Vital dates, medical practice, San Antonio directory citations
• Direct involvement in H&H business affairs (probable through Minnie, but specifics unclear)
• Mildred Schlosser’s later history and descendants

E. E. Knous — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Did Knous transition into the Master Chef commercial-supply business when that brand launched c.1927?
• Specific restaurant accounts he handled (Mi Tierra Cafe is on the customer list — was Knous the salesman?)

Ernesto Gonzales — 9 open

• Full name — paternal and maternal surnames in Spanish convention, middle names, vital dates
• Business or company name — was he a coffee roaster operator, an equipment dealer, an importer, or something broader?
• Industry context — what was Monterrey’s coffee industry like in 1971 that created demand for four 1915-vintage Burns Jubilee machines?
• Continental relationship — how did he learn about the H&H equipment? Direct Continental contact, a San Antonio broker, a Monterrey-side connection in the U.S. trade?
• Why Continental sold rather than redeploying — Continental was a national operation; what made a Monterrey export the destination rather than another Continental plant in the U.S.?
• Roastery fate — does his operation survive in Monterrey under any successor name? Are the Jubilee 14R46-class machines still there or have they been moved/scrapped since?
• Descendants or successor business — could the Gonzales family business be located via Monterrey coffee-trade networks today?
• Did he ever come to San Antonio — to inspect the machines pre-sale, supervise the removal, or maintain the relationship post-installation?
• Did Jasso or Valdez return to Monterrey after the 1971 commissioning trip — for additional service work, parts replacement, or social visits?

See TODO-32 for the structured research plan.

Gustav P. Menger — 4 open

• Precise sibling order among G. P., R. W., T. J., and L. B. Menger. Partially resolved (2026-05-21). The 1971 Louis B. and 1974 Gus P. obituaries (HH-CLIP-1971-0002, HH-CLIP-1974-0002) jointly document seven Menger siblings: Gus P., Rudolph W., Theodore J., Louis B., August, Edward W., and Margaret. Louis B. was 85 at death (Oct 1971 → b. ~1886); Gus P. was 84 at death (Aug 1974 → b. ~1889–1890); Edward W. died Nov 1960 (per HH-CLIP-1960-0004). Birth order is consistent with Louis B. being the eldest among the brothers in this set, but the precise full ordering — including August, Rudolph, Theodore, Edward, and Margaret — is not directly stated in either obituary. Research angles: Texas birth/baptism records 1880–1900; the family plot at Mission Burial Park (interment site for both Louis B. and Gus P.); census records 1900, 1910, 1920.
• Earliest documented role at Hoffmann-Hayman before the 1912 charter — did he assist the firm during William Hoffmann’s lifetime?
• Continental Coffee transition: brand operations sold in 1962 (confirmed); real estate sold by G. P. Menger personally in 1972. What was G. P. Menger’s involvement (consulting? board seat?) during the 1962–1972 decade between the two transactions? Partially documented: the 1974 obituary (HH-CLIP-1974-0002) styles him “retired Chairman of Board H&H Coffee Company” — implying a board chairmanship that continued after he stepped down from the presidency in May 1960 and that he held the chair role through (at minimum) the 1962 Continental sale.
• Marriage records and Mrs. G. P. Menger’s biography. Two marriages documented; name discrepancies flagged (June 2026). Gus P. Menger had two wives: (1) Rose Lee Menger (née Crowther), died 27 October 1955 (per San Antonio Light, 27 Oct 1955 — see Rose Lee Menger); (2) Mrs. Adele Menger, surviving at the time of the 1974 obituary (HH-CLIP-1974-0002), at 1919 Kenilworth Blvd.; step-son Carl Paxson named in that obituary. Draves document discrepancy: The Menger family genealogy document shared by Tim and Nancy Draves (June 2026) lists wife 1 as “Rowalie Crowther” (vs “Rose Lee née Crowther” in the obituary) and wife 2 as “Catherine” (vs “Adele” in the obituary). Obituaries are primary sources and take precedence; “Rowalie” may be a legal given name for Rose Lee; “Catherine” vs “Adele” is unresolved and may indicate an error in the family document. See 2026-06-01-menger-family-genealogy-draves. Research angles: marriage records; Adele Menger’s maiden name; Adele’s death record.

Helen Hoffmann — 4 open

• Precise birth date (probable 1911 or early 1912; parish records or Texas vital records would confirm)
• Cause of death — the 1945 obituary records the date, address, and funeral arrangements but the cause has not yet been surfaced. Resolving this is the key prerequisite to evaluating the father-daughter age-33 parallel (see above) as coincidence vs. hereditary.
  • Oral-history lead — rat bite / rabies (Nancy Draves, oral, June 2026): Nancy told Brett that a rat ran over Helen’s foot and bit her. A rat bite leading to rabies is a medically plausible 1940s death pathway — rabies was incurable before post-exposure prophylaxis became reliable, and a January 1945 death following a bite could fit the timeline. This is the most recent and specific family-lore account of the cause. Treat as a research lead pointing toward a Bexar County 1945 death certificate for confirmation.
  • Earlier oral-history lead — garage / motor (Nancy Draves, 28 May 2026 listening session — paraphrased, fragmentary): Nancy also mentioned Helen “went in the garage” and “ran her [motor]” — a phrasing consistent with carbon-monoxide death. This may be a separate incident, a misremembering, or the garage context may be where the rat encounter occurred. The two leads are not necessarily contradictory. Recording: raw-archives/oral-history/2026-05-28_nancy-tim-draves-listening-session.transcript.turns.md (~02:28 timestamp range). Digest: 2026-05-28-nancy-tim-draves-listening-session.
  • Resolution path: Bexar County 1945 death certificate. If rabies confirmed, the father-daughter age-33 parallel is coincidence (Hoffmann Sr. died of “brief illness,” not the same mechanism). If confirmed natural-cause / illness, the hereditary thread reopens.
• Whether she had any formal role at Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company beyond being the brand namesake
• The circumstances behind the brand name choice in 1933 — was she consulted, or was it a tribute by G. P. Menger and the company?

Irene Brown — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Tenure dates
• Title distinction from Clara H. Allred’s “special demonstrator” — sequence (Brown promoted later, or Allred had seniority)?

J. C. Neeley — 3 open

• Who was J. C. Neeley? A USPTO TESS / trademark search would not surface a personal name; the more productive sources are: 1912 San Antonio city directories (Polk’s), 1910 / 1920 federal census records for Bexar County, and Texas Secretary of State filings naming him as an incorporator or officer of other companies during the 1910s.
• Why was he on the H&H board? A coincidence of address with one of the incorporators (e.g. shared business at a nearby downtown street), a family connection (the Hoffmann or Menger families had relatives with the surname Neeley in San Antonio in the 1910s — worth checking), or a banking/legal relationship are all plausible.
• When did he leave the board? A 1913 or 1914 H&H board listing (if one exists in Tea and Coffee Trade Journal or local trade press) could narrow the exit window.

Jack Moore — 3 open

• Was Moore an internal Continental promotion, an external hire, or held over from the pre-1962 H&H roster? None of the 1959-60 H&H officer rosters list a “Jack Moore.”
• How long did Moore stay? The 30 Dec 1966 piece is the latest direct attestation. The Master Chef brand continued through at least 25 March 1968; whether Moore remained president through that window is undocumented.
• What was Moore’s career before and after Master Chef Food Products? Texas business directories, Continental Coffee corporate filings, or San Antonio Chamber of Commerce records would document.

Joachum Morales — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Tenure dates
• Spanish-surname coverage: did Morales handle the Latino-San Antonio grocer trade specifically, or was the city beat geographically divided?

Jordan Sawyer (“the Master Chef”) — 3 open

• Was “Jordan Sawyer” his real name or a brand-character name? The 1966 articles treat him as a real person, but a brand-persona pseudonym (similar to “Betty Crocker”) is plausible. Texas vital records, SA city directories, or business-press references could disambiguate.
• How long did the Sawyer-as-Master-Chef persona run? December 1966 is the documented launch window with the color-keyed cans. Whether Sawyer continued appearing in 1967-1968 Master Chef promotions (the H. L. Green and Handy-Andy 1968 grocery ads don’t show photography) is undocumented.
• Promotional ephemera? A costumed live spokesperson typically generates promotional photographs, point-of-purchase displays, in-store appearances, and (in the mid-1960s) possibly local TV ads. Surviving examples in San Antonio area collections or news photography morgues would be high-yield finds.

Karla Kreft (“the Master Chef girl”) — 3 open

• Was “Karla Kreft” her real name or a brand-character name? The single 1966 attestation treats her as a real person but provides no biographical detail.
• Visual documentation? No photograph of Kreft surfaces in the project’s 1966 Master Chef sources. Promotional ephemera, in-store appearance photographs, or local TV ads from the 1966-67 launch window would be high-yield finds.
• How long did the persona run? Only the 30 December 1966 launch attestation is on site.

Louis B. Menger — 4 open

• Exact birth and death dates (obit has the date; not yet distilled)
• Whether he held any role at H&H between 1923 and 1932, or left the firm entirely
• Who handled the Custodian of Accounts function at H&H after Louis B. withdrew? The 1932 officer roster (Gus P., R. W., T. J., and Minnie) has no separate Accounts role.
• Census records 1900, 1910, 1920 would supply early biographical detail

Mary Menger (Maria Clara Baumschlüeter Menger) — 3 open

• Is Katarina Babette (Catherine Barbara) Menger the same person as the Catherine Menger in this project’s lineage?
• What is the exact route from Mary/William’s children to the H&H Menger generation (Gus P., Minnie, R. W., etc.)?
• What does the Menger Family Collection at the Archives of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word contain? Is it accessible for research?

Menger Family — Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. — 6 open

• What is the precise relationship among G. P., R. W., T. J., and L. B. Menger — brothers, cousins? Resolved — siblings (2026-05-21). The 30 October 1971 Louis B. Menger obituary (HH-CLIP-1971-0002) names surviving brothers August, Gus, Rudolph, Theodore Menger and sister Miss Margaret Menger; the 7 August 1974 Gus P. Menger obituary (HH-CLIP-1974-0002) names surviving brothers August, Rudolph W., Ted J. Menger and sister Margaret Menger (Louis B. having predeceased Gus P. in 1971; Edward W. having predeceased both in 1960 per HH-CLIP-1960-0004). The full sibling set documented across the obituaries is therefore seven: Gus P., Rudolph W., Theodore J., Louis B., August, Edward W., and Margaret Menger — all sharing the “grandson/granddaughter of the founder of the Menger Hotel and Menger Soap Factory” lineage line. Precise birth order remains undocumented (see Gustav P. Menger Open Questions).
• Did Dr. R. Menger have any direct role in the business?
• When exactly did G. P. Menger join the company — was it immediately after the 1912 charter (where he is listed as Secretary), or did he participate earlier during Hoffmann’s lifetime?
• Who is August Menger (1960 director) — relation to G. P., Albert, etc.? Resolved — brother of G. P. (2026-05-21). The 1971 and 1974 obituaries (HH-CLIP-1971-0002, HH-CLIP-1974-0002) both list “August” as a surviving brother of Louis B. and Gus P. Menger. August Menger’s appearance on the May 1960 board is therefore a Gen-3 placement (brother of Gus P., uncle of Albert G.), not a Gen-4 figure.
• Who is Mrs. Mildred S. Holliday (1960 director) — is she a Menger by birth (e.g. daughter or sister), and what is the connection? Partial trace: a Fred(erick) J. Holliday appears as a pallbearer in both the 1971 Louis B. (HH-CLIP-1971-0002) and 1974 Gus P. (HH-CLIP-1974-0002) obituaries, suggesting a close-family Holliday connection through Mildred — most plausibly her husband or son, not a Menger sibling-by-marriage. Marriage and 1900–1920 census records are the next research angle.
• Albert G. Menger served as president from May 1960 to the 1962 Continental Coffee acquisition — about two years before the sale. What was his role at Continental (if any) after the acquisition?

Minnie Menger Schlosser — 3 open

• Did she maintain any active operational role beyond the directorship, or was the position honorary by the 1930s?
• Texas vital / church records to confirm and supplement the genealogy-sourced 1880 birth and 1956 death.
• Surviving correspondence or business records under either married name.

P. J. Smith — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Tenure dates
• City-beat geographic split between Smith and Morales — were routes divided by neighborhood, customer-language, or simply alphabetically?

Paul A. Rochs — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Whether Rochs continued past 1934 (the project hasn’t surfaced post-1934 attestations)
• The five-year gap between his 1917 Morrison-acquisition retention and the 1923 profile’s “eleven years with the firm” — does the 11-year count include Morrison time?

R. A. Nagel — 3 open

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Tenure dates (only the 1923 attestation is in hand)
• Relationship to the later “office manager” role held by Louis B. Menger by Aug 1921 — were Nagel and L. B. Menger sequential, parallel, or did the title transfer?

Stanford P. Stevens (S. P. Stevens) — 13 open

• Birth and death dates — verification — the Worthpoint catalog text gives 1917–2000 but is a single secondary source and has not been confirmed against Bexar County / Texas vital records, a Find-a-Grave entry, or an obituary in the SA Express-News / Light. A San Antonio death in 2000 would be expected to generate a substantial obituary given Stevens’s civic and trade visibility.
• Stevens Outdoor Advertising founding date and address — San Antonio city directories from c.1935–1965 would name the firm if it existed under that name. Worldcat and the Polk’s San Antonio City Directory annual series are the canonical sources.
• Texas Secretary of State business filing for Stevens Outdoor Advertising — would confirm corporate existence, incorporation date, principals, and address history.
• First-name expansion of “S. P.” — Stanford or Silas? Four 2009 Flickr photos from one uploader (wsssst) — uploaded together in a single April-2009 session — all expand “S. P.” to Silas in their titles: the cowboy-room interior (raw-sources/web/2026-05-22-flickr-silas-p-stevens-cowboy-room), a 1976 CCCA Grand Classic certificate (raw-sources/web/2026-05-22-flickr-silas-p-stevens-certificate), an Alpine/Lederhosen vintage snapshot (raw-sources/web/2026-05-22-flickr-silas-p-stevens-artist), and a framed-print copy-photograph of Stevens at Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (raw-sources/web/2026-05-22-flickr-silas-p-stevens-cole-palen-aerodrome). However, the two photographs that actually depict contemporary documents — the 1976 certificate hand-completed by Stevens, and the framed-print’s caption strip — both use “S.P. Stevens” in initials only, as does the 2026 Worthpoint catalog entry for the 1967 “Attack on the Wagon Train” oil (raw-sources/web/2026-05-22-worthpoint-p-stevens-1917-2000-attack-wagon), and so does R. L. Wilson’s 2013 correspondence (raw-sources/correspondence/2026-05-22-r-l-wilson-letters-stevens-fowler-winchester) — Wilson uses formal “S. P. Stevens” in book credits and possessive “Steve’s” in informal narration, with no first-name expansion either way; none of the contemporary-document attestations resolves the first-name question. The $0.06 flea-market price sticker on the Cole Palen frame further suggests wsssst may be a collector/dealer rather than a family member, weakening the “Silas” caption as a name-expansion source. “Stanford” remains unsourced project lore. Search Bexar County deeds for 239 Windsor Dr., Polk’s San Antonio City Directory under both Stanford and Silas, and Texas vital records under both spellings (now with a 2000 death-year anchor from the Worthpoint catalog). Whichever returns hits is the canonical first name. Facial comparison between the 1954/1958 signed self-portraits and the figures in the cowboy-room, Alpine, and Cole Palen photos would also confirm or refute the assumption that all four wsssst images depict the same Stevens.
• Texas Gun Collectors Association “Gunfighter” painting — a Stevens oil reportedly serves as the TGCA club motif (Worthpoint catalog, 2026-05-22). Direct outreach to TGCA would supply an image of the painting, its date and dimensions, the chain of how it came to be adopted as the club motif (gift from Stevens? estate donation? purchase?), and ideally any TGCA records of Stevens’s membership and tenure. This is a high-yield target — the same organization may also hold an obituary clipping, photograph, or oral-history note.
• Obituary, interview, or profile of S. P. Stevens — the San Antonio Express, Light, Express-News, or trade press would carry an obituary if Stevens died in San Antonio between c.1960 and the present. Search under both Stanford P. Stevens and Silas P. Stevens.
• Hollywood-visitor lore — the Flickr caption claims the Windsor Drive home hosted Errol Flynn and Clark Gable (both died by 1960). If true, SA Light / Express-News society columns from the 1950s would likely mention it; a corroborating clip would also settle the first name. Treat as unverified until then.
• Signature, painter’s stamp, or shop attribution on the back of surviving H&H sign work — the museum holds the “We Serve Master Chef Coffee” sign and other commercial signage; physical inspection of sign backs and supporting boards could surface a painter’s name.
• Photographic evidence of Stevens at work — a snapshot of Stevens with brush-in-hand at an H&H billboard, in a Stevens Outdoor shop, or with H&H staff would be decisive.
• Painter, shop, or contractor attribution on the 1934 “Fragrant…” billboard — the Zintgraff group photo doesn’t credit the billboard painter; the original Zintgraff studio records (if extant) may carry a commission note.
• A copy of R. L. Wilson (ed.), Antique Arms Annual (1971) — Acquired June 2026 (HH-BOOK-2026-0022). 1st-edition copy in collection. Cover confirms Stevens as Publisher (not just photographer). Pages 126–143 (Fowler Winchester section) to be examined for photographic style, contributor bio notes, and additional Stevens-by-line credits.
• 2013 auction record for Winchester Model 1895 Deluxe Serial No. 88418 — the resurfacing of this Roosevelt-presentation rifle is what prompted Wilson’s 2013 letters and the consequent re-statement of Stevens’s 1971 photographer role. The auction-house records (Rock Island Auction Co., Greg Martin Auctions successor, James D. Julia, Heritage, or similar high-end firearms houses in early-to-mid 2013) would identify the buyer “John” addressed in the letters and may carry additional Stevens-photographed images of the rifle.
• High-resolution Master Chef sign face vs. any sourced Stevens Outdoor commercial sign face — the actual discriminating comparison. Once Stevens Outdoor sign examples are sourced (top Wanted item), a like-to-like brushwork-and-composition comparison against the Master Chef chef can be run; comparing the easel portraits to the 4×8 sign is scale-mismatched and not the right test.

W. E. Hayman — 16 open

• Birth date Resolved: 22 July 1865, Letart Falls, Meigs, Ohio (FamilySearch LZVM-GXZ; consistent with the 1870 census source cited there and with death notice’s “in his 59th year” reckoning).
• Wife’s identity Resolved: Sarah Anna McKnight (1864–1948), married 1 September 1886, Saint Johns, Perry, Illinois.
• Children Resolved: William Clifford (1889–1890), Mary Constance (1892–1951), Norman D (1897–1936).
• Parents Resolved: William T Hayman (1826–1901) + Mary Jane Donnelly (1829–1909).
• Home town: Letart Falls (OH) vs. Point Pleasant (WV). Now clear that his birth and early life was in the Letart Falls community on the Ohio/WV border (Meigs Co., OH); the 1900 census places him in Mason, WV; newspaper clips (1890, 1897) say “Letart, W.Va.” (WV side of the community); the 1915 SA paper says “Point Pleasant, W.Va.” (county seat, 35 miles upriver). Plausible he drifted the short distance to Point Pleasant for business or residence between 1897 and 1910. Research angles: Meigs County, Ohio birth records for July 22, 1865 (confirm birth registration); Mason County city directories 1890–1910.
• Pre-Texas occupation: partially resolved. Riverboat co-owner (1890) and merchant (1897) documented. What remains open: the full span of his WV/OH business activities; the exact year he moved to SA; whether there was an intermediate WV→SA visit before the 1910 foreclosure filing; the specific nature of his “merchandise” business. Research angles: 1900 federal census (Mason, WV) to identify his listed occupation; WV Secretary of State business entity filings; river trade records for the Bob Ballard; Letart / Point Pleasant local newspapers 1895–1910.
• Marriage in Illinois (1886): Hayman married in Saint Johns, Perry County, Illinois — well outside his WV home base. No explanation yet for why the marriage was in Illinois. Research angles: Perry County, IL records; was this his wife’s home community?
• FamilySearch death date conflict: FamilySearch LZVM-GXZ records death as “9 June 1924”; the KB primary source (death notice) gives August 9, 1924. The FamilySearch figure is almost certainly a month transposition (June ↔ August, both the 9th). Flag for correction in the FamilySearch tree.
• Siblings “Ann Elizabeth” (b. 1853) and “Ann Eliza” (b. 1854) in FamilySearch: likely a duplicate entry for the same person. Both show death year 1917. Verify against census / vital records.
• Exact chronology between the January 1920 H&H sale and the March 1921 Tucker Coffee filing — any intermediate ventures.
• Texas Secretary of State entity history for Tucker Coffee Company (1921 vs 1923 filings).
• San Antonio city directories 1920–1925: Hayman residence/office; Tucker office listings.
• Exact chronology between the January 1920 H&H sale and the March 1921 Tucker Coffee filing — any intermediate ventures.
• Texas Secretary of State entity history for Tucker Coffee Company (1921 vs 1923 filings; whether the 1923 charter is an amendment or a refile).
• San Antonio city directories 1920–1925: Hayman residence/office; Tucker office listings; whether Hayman ever appears as a Tucker operating officer.
• Trade or local papers mentioning Tucker vs Hoffmann-Hayman explicitly (rivalry, customer overlap, ad copy comparisons).

Warren Burns — 3 open

• Continuity from Burkholder to Burns. No primary source documents the sales-manager handover. Burkholder’s period field is 1945–c.1964 (now narrowed to c.1962) — leaving a 4-year gap before Burns’s 1966 attestation.
• Burns’s tenure end-date. December 1966 is the only direct attestation. Burns is not named in any 1968+ Master Chef brand source on the site (the H. L. Green / Handy-Andy 1968 grocery ads don’t name executives).
• Burns’s career before and after Master Chef Food Products. San Antonio business directories, Continental Coffee corporate filings, or trade-press records would document.

William A. Menger — 4 open

• Cause of death — primary obituary not yet retrieved. Every accessible web source gives only “suddenly of natural causes” (Immigrant Entrepreneurship) or no cause at all. The specific cause requires the primary newspaper obituary — San Antonio Herald or San Antonio Express, c. March 18–20, 1871 — currently paywalled on Newspapers.com and bot-blocked on Portal to Texas History. No stomach-related cause is documented for William A. Menger; the “stomach trouble” detail belongs to William R. Hoffmann (1912 burial permit, HH-CLIP-1912-0010).
• Sister M. Gonzaga — possibly a fifth child of William A. and Mary Menger, not listed in the Immigrant Entrepreneurship four-child roster. The Sons of DeWitt Colony archive describes her as “born in the hotel” and serving as “secretary-general of the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence at Our Lady of the Lake College.” Could be: (a) an additional child not captured in the Immigrant Entrepreneurship entry; (b) Catherine Barbara under a religious name (unlikely — Catherine married Dr. Rudolph Menger and had eight children); or (c) a misattribution. Sisters of Divine Providence archives at OLL would resolve.
• UIW Library vs. UIW Archives — whether the Menger Family Papers and the Menger Family Collection are the same holding or two separate ones
• Peter Gustav Menger — died in 1914; no further details are documented

William R. Hoffmann — 1 open

• Gustav Hoffmann connection. The TSHA Handbook of Texas documents a Gustav Hoffmann (born 1817, Prussia; d. March 10, 1889, San Antonio) as one of the original New Braunfels settlers and its first mayor. William R. Hoffmann was born ~1879 to German parents who settled at New Braunfels; his parents were still there at his 1912 death. Gustav could be William’s grandfather or great-uncle — the timing fits but the entry does not document his progeny. See tsha-hoffmann-gustav-hall-1976. A Find a Grave or Ancestry search for Gustav’s family line would resolve this.

William R. Hoffmann Jr. — 4 open

• Exact birth and death dates from Bexar County records
• Cause of death
• Burial location (likely with the Hoffmann/Menger family plot)
• Surviving birth or death notices in San Antonio papers (project hasn’t surfaced one yet)

Places (18 pages)

1008 Hoefgen Street — 3 open

• What concrete company operated here, and for what period?
• Was the concrete supplier at 1008 Hoefgen a vendor to the 1932 H&H plant construction (George W. Mitchell Construction, Morris Nooman and Wilson architects)?
• What is the current ownership and status of the structure?

1223 West Commerce Street — 4 open

• Exact occupancy dates (start and end)
• Building owner / lessor
• Whether the address was shared with other San Antonio firms
• Successor occupant after Hoffmann-Hayman moved (to the Caffarelli block / 307 N. Medina by late 1912)

208 East Commerce Street — 4 open

• Specific 1908 directory citation
• Was 208 East Commerce a storefront, a warehouse, or both?
• Earliest and latest occupancy dates — when did Hoffmann move from here to 1223 W. Commerce?
• Relationship to the 228 East Commerce address noted in the company KB page as a c.1899 Hoffmann start-up location

307 North Medina Street — 4 open

• Exact 1922–1923 move date from 307 N. Medina to 331 Burnett
• Building’s pre-H&H history — what was at 307 N. Medina before 1917?
• Building’s post-H&H history (still standing in 2026? a different occupant?)
• Was 307 N. Medina the same building that Morrison Coffee had operated from, or a separate H&H facility that absorbed Morrison’s stock and brands?

331 Burnett Street — 4 open

• Exact 1923 move-in and 1932 move-out dates
• Was Burnett purpose-built for H&H or an existing building they took over?
• “S.P. Tracks” suggests rail-spur access for green-coffee imports; was the Burnett site designed for that, or did H&H choose it for the spur?
• Building’s post-1932 history

601 Delaware Street Plant — 4 open

• Why did the first-floor structure require steel I-beam repairs, and what was on the roof that required extra support? Physical observation confirms: visible 45-degree diagonal cracks in the first-floor ceiling (concrete beam soffits) and steel I-beams retrofitted to carry the load that the cracked members can no longer safely sustain. The crack pattern is diagnostic: 45° diagonal tension cracks in RC beams indicate shear failure, not settlement or bending (which produce vertical cracks). Shear cracks initiate near supports or under concentrated loads where shear stress is highest; the concrete splits along the principal tensile-stress plane at ~45°. The I-beam retrofit bypasses the damaged concrete by creating a parallel steel load path. Leading hypotheses for what caused the overloading: (1) Rooftop gravity water-storage tank — a standard 1930s fire-code requirement, typically 10,000–25,000 gallons (80,000–200,000 lbs), easily exceeding the original beam design if added post-construction; (2) Vacuum-packing compressor and cooling plant for the Crystalvac machinery (heavy equipment; vibration from compressors accelerates diagonal cracking); (3) Bulk green-coffee storage bins on the second floor, installed after the building was designed for lighter process loads. The crack-and-retrofit sequence was likely triggered by one of these loads being added after the original 1932 design was finalized. Research angles: San Antonio building permits and repair notices (c.1932–1950); fire-insurance records naming rooftop tank capacity; engineering correspondence if held by George W. Mitchell Construction descendants or archive; Sanborn fire-insurance maps showing second-floor machinery layout; comparison with sibling 1930s Texas roasting plants.
• Where are the original factory machines? Partially answered (2026-05-25): four Jabez Burns Jubilee roasters were sold to Monterrey (1971; Chris M. Jasso letter via Nancy Draves). The 1904 hand roaster was preserved as a 1932 Open House display piece. Huntley Monitor line (1923 documented) and vacuum-packing / Crystalvac equipment remain unaccounted for. Research angles: CoffeeTec Antiques Roasters listings; auction notices; trade-press used-equipment ads; museum accession files.

• What did peak-operation interior photography look like? Partially expanded (2026-05-21). Features catalogs the 1932 plant build at occupancy; documented newspaper interior shots from the 1940s–1960s peak-operation period now include: (a) the 22 May 1949 San Antonio Light “$315 Million Output Predicted” McNeel business feature (HH-CLIP-1949-0002), which prints a documentary photograph of about 70 H&H Coffee Co. employees demonstrating quick milling, weighing, and packaging of fine coffees inside the 601 Delaware plant on the occasion of the San Antonio Manufacturers Association annual dinner (held at the plant the Tuesday before, 17 May 1949); and (b) the 1959 “Top Coffee Plant” Light feature on the Hoffmann-Hayman page. The 1949 photo is the earliest documented workforce-line interior shot from the Delaware Street era and the only one taken during the late-G. P. Menger / pre-Continental period. Research angles: San Antonio Light / Express photo morgues (Trinity University archives, UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures); Sanborn fire insurance maps showing machinery layout; private employee snapshots if any surviving worker families can be reached.

• “G — M — A” surveyor’s pavement marker at the entry gate — whose stamp? A small zinc / galvanized-steel domed pavement marker, the size of a US quarter, is driven into the Delaware Street pavement directly in front of the factory’s entry gate (2024 reference post). The cap face carries a central center-punch dimple, radial tick marks, and three legible stamped letters reading G — M — A around the perimeter — almost certainly a Texas surveying firm’s or registered land surveyor’s initials, but the specific attribution is not yet identified. Research angles: Bexar County plat records and recent surveys filed for the H&H parcel and the Delaware Street right-of-way; Union Pacific / Southern Pacific railroad ROW survey records for the rail siding directly behind the building; City of San Antonio public-works construction-control records (SAWS, TxDOT, City PW); Texas Society of Professional Land Surveyors Alamo Chapter rosters cross-referenced against the GMA initials; a registered surveyor recognizing the cap face in person would likely identify the firm immediately. Open sub-questions: are there matching GMA stampings at the parcel’s other corners (street curb, rear-of-lot at the rail siding, intermediate angle points) that would establish this as a coordinated parcel-corner monumentation rather than a single-point reference?

Alamo Plaza — 2 open

• Whether a documented Alamo Plaza address for the Sauer grocery exists (needed to precisely locate Hoffmann’s pre-H&H workplace)
• The exact timeline of the hotel-side Mengers’ connection to the H&H Mengers — shared ancestor, cousins, or more distant?

Fort Sam Houston — 3 open

• Whether H&H held a standing contract for Fort Sam Houston, or bid per order
• Whether the commissary procurement records for 1910–1945 survive in Fort Sam Houston’s historical archives
• What brands H&H supplied to Fort Sam (the 1917 article names H&H, Wesco, Misa, Texco as the company’s four main marks at that time)

Gunter Building — 3 open

• Year built; original tenant mix; current building status (still standing in 2026?)
• Other H&H-related tenants over the decades
• Whether the Pitluk–Perry L. King physical proximity was coincidence or a referral chain

Houston distributing plant (Patrick Shipside Warehouse) — 5 open

• Exact Patrick Shipside Warehouse street address and whether the building survives
• When the Houston branch opened (article says “established” by Nov 1939; opening date unknown)
• Tenure — when closed or consolidated back to San Antonio
• F. H. Kelley — full name, vitals, Houston directory citations
• Whether Houston-made cans differ from San Antonio-packed stock

Menger Hotel — 3 open

• H&H coffee served at the hotel. Even under the no-distinct-wordmark hypothesis, H&H coffee may have been served at the Menger Hotel through the family network. A period menu or breakfast card referencing H&H would document the customer relationship.
• W. L. Moody Jr. acquisition date. The ownership timeline gives 1943; the source for this is Tim Draves (June 2026). Primary records (deed transfer, SA newspaper) would confirm.
• John M. Fries — SA’s first prominent architect; no dedicated KB entry. Worth a stub if further Fries-H&H connections surface.

Mission Burial Park — 3 open

• Precise section and lot numbers for Louis B., Rudolph W., Theodore J., and W. E. Hayman
• Whether Dr. Rudolph Menger (the patriarch, d. ~1920s) is also interred at Mission Burial Park South
• Whether other Menger siblings (August, Edward W., Margaret) share the family plot

New Braunfels — 3 open

• Whether W. R. Hoffmann’s parents are documented in New Braunfels census or church records
• Whether Gustav Hoffmann (1817–1889) is an ancestor of the H&H founder
• Whether H&H had a formal distribution arrangement with any New Braunfels grocers

San Antonio Conservation Society — 4 open

• 601 Delaware in Society files. Is the Delaware Street plant or block documented in library files, surveys, or advocacy history? Gas-station and farm/ranch surveys are explicit online; industrial/commercial coverage needs a librarian query.
• Industrial or commercial register. Project notes refer to an “industrial heritage register”; the public Historic Site Surveys page (2026-05-27) lists farm/ranch and gas-station programs only — clarify with staff whether a separate commercial/industrial inventory exists offline.
• Building grant fit. Would 601 Delaware adaptive reuse qualify under the annual building-grant criteria (age, ownership, project type)?
• NIOSA / event partnership. Practical path for ginger-beer or book sales, lecture slots, or preservation-week programming.

Spahn Bakery — 5 open

• 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?”)

UIW Archives — Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word — 3 open

• What is the precise scope of the Menger Family Collection — hotel records only, or does it extend to the H&H-era siblings’ papers?
• Has Tim Draves been contacted specifically about H&H materials in the collection?
• Are there finding aids for the Menger Family Collection available online or by request?

UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) — 3 open

• Catalog query. Does UTSA Special Collections hold any H&H corporate records (annual reports, correspondence, sales sheets) beyond the city-directory references? A general catalog search for “Hoffmann-Hayman” / “H and H” / “Master Chef Coffee” would establish baseline holdings.
• Access logistics. Reading-room hours, advance-request requirements, copying/imaging policy for the city-directory and Sanborn-map series most often cited from H&H research.
• Architectural drawings. Specifically whether the Morris, Nooman, and Wilson 1932 H&H Delaware Street plans are held at UTSA (vs. UIW, the Witte, or the Bexar County Archives).

Witte Museum — 4 open

• Witte collection holdings on H&H or Hoffmann-Hayman. Does the Witte hold any H&H tins, advertising material, or company records? The 2018 Sam Houston tin display indicates at least one period H&H artifact has been in their custody; a Witte collections-search query would establish whether they hold additional H&H material.
• Curatorial connection. The Witte’s exhibition program on SA commercial history is a natural partner for any future H and H Coffee Factory museum programming.
• The 2023–2024 Mi Cultura catalog. Is the Cortez-family lanyard image reproduced in a printed catalog or online publication that would document the image’s provenance chain?
• NJ Elmendorf kitchen. Official room name, location on campus (Mays Family Center vs. service wing), and dedication history for the catering kitchen named for NJ Elmendorf.

Synthesis (1 pages)

Premiums and Coupon-Redemption Programs — 4 open

• Who supplied the china premiums? Was there a single china-supply contract behind the 1923 Border / Broncho pails, the 1929 Sam Houston program, and the 1942 cup-and-saucer SKU clustering? A 1920s–1940s supplier invoice or china-supply contract would document.
• How many leaf ashtrays survive? The Witte holds KS 193; the 2015 project photo shows a leaf ashtray that may or may not be KS 193 photographed pre-accessioning. Surviving specimens in San Antonio estate sales would be a parallel collectible to the cup-and-saucer premiums and would clarify whether the 2015 photo documents a second specimen.
• What did the 1936 Cory Improved Brewer coupon redemption cost? Partial context (2026-05-21). The 1936 Express-News run does yield a same-year, same-program ad — the 18 November 1936 “FREE Drip Coffee Maker or 8 Cup Percolator” Hoffmann-Hayman three-brand placement (HH-CLIP-1936-0005) — which documents a 60-coupon premium-value redemption (H&H 2 coupons/lb; Sam Houston and Texas Girl 1 coupon/lb) for a 6-cup drip coffee maker or 8-cup percolator, with a parallel 89¢ cash-and-mail-back variant and an expiry of 31 December 1937. The November 1936 placement is the same coupon-ratio (60-coupon redemption) later confirmed in the January 1937 trade reference, indicating the 60-coupon program ran across at least November 1936 → January 1937. The 13 April 1936 Express-News Cory Improved Brewer copy is therefore likely on the same 60-coupon ratio (its proximity to the November 1936 program makes a different threshold improbable), but a direct primary-source attestation of the Cory-specific redemption threshold still requires pulling the April–October 1936 Express-News run.
• Did the 1942 “no prem.” notation on BIG VALUE survive the war? The 1942 sheet is dated 2 March 1942, three months after Pearl Harbor; rationing of ceramics and metals may have foreclosed cup-and-saucer premiums on the secondary brands later in 1942–1944. A 1943–1945 H&H price sheet would document.

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