HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 4 further entries on record
Founded in 1929 by Mary Howell on the Scenic Loop outside San Antonio — the area's oldest surviving restaurant, where staff have attributed thrown dishes, knocked trays, and started fires to an owner who said she would never leave.
19010 Scenic Loop Rd, Helotes, TX 78023
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Full-service restaurant with Northern Mexican-inspired menu; dinner entree prices in the $20–$40 range. Reservations available.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Rural Scenic Loop setting; restaurant building on level ground under historic oak trees
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1929 · San Antonio Area's Oldest Surviving Restaurant (est. 1929) · Mary Howell — San Antonio Light 'Most Influential Women' Honoree, 1940
Mary Howell was born in 1890 in Decatur, Texas. After marrying Arthur Edward Howell, she took a trip to Medina Lake that inspired her to open a restaurant and inn on the Scenic Loop outside San Antonio. Grey Moss Inn opened in 1929 — the same October that the stock market crashed — in a rural oak-canopy setting that is now part of the small city of Grey Forest.
Despite the timing, the restaurant survived the Depression and found an upscale clientele drawn by the isolation and the setting. By 1940, the San Antonio Light recognized Howell as one of the most professional and influential women in the city. The restaurant attracted notable figures of the period including John Jacob Astor and silent film actress Colleen Moore.
Howell died in 1976, having run the restaurant for 47 years. The Grey Moss Inn passed through several subsequent owners who maintained it as a dining destination: Jerry and Mary Martin transformed it into a more formal establishment, and Dr. Lou Baeten reinvented it as a steakhouse famous for grilling over an outdoor firepit. The restaurant closed in 2020 after more than nine decades of operation.
In 2023, siblings Martha Valadez, Marisol Mendoza, and Zeke Martinez reopened the restaurant with a Northern Mexican-inspired menu, continuing operations under the Grey Moss Inn name in the original building and grounds.
Sources
The Grey Moss Inn's haunting is attributed to its founder and sole persistent force: Mary Howell, who ran the restaurant from 1929 until her death in 1976 and who, by multiple accounts, told people before she died that she would never leave it.
The incidents reported by staff and guests fit a consistent pattern of a presence that has opinions about the place. Decorative plates she apparently disapproved of have been found thrown from walls. Glasses in the kitchen have broken without being touched. Tray jacks have been knocked over. Candles blown out by staff have been found relit shortly afterward. Fires have started with no identified cause; alarms have triggered in empty rooms.
Howell's apparition has been reported in the main dining hall on multiple occasions — a woman in period dress observed in the dining room before vanishing. A rose-scented perfume has been detected by guests and staff in areas where no perfume source could be identified, consistent with accounts of Howell's preferred scent.
Ghost City Tours, Russell Rush Haunted Tour, and Edible San Antonio all document the haunting with the same basic set of incidents and the same attributed cause. The accounts are specific enough — particular objects moved, particular smells, particular rooms — to suggest repeated observations rather than a single embellished legend.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Dine in the historic 1929 restaurant building under old-growth oaks on the Scenic Loop northwest of San Antonio. The current menu is Northern Mexican-inspired, operated by siblings Martha Valadez, Marisol Mendoza, and Zeke Martinez, who reopened the restaurant in 2023 after a three-year closure. Staff have attributed kitchenware moving, fires starting, and alarms triggering to the presence of the original founder.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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