HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 3 further entries on record
An 1871 New Braunfels saloon where a barroom fight killed Walter Krause in 1885, owner John Sippel shot himself in 1900, and William Gebhardt invented chili powder in the back-room café in 1894.
193 W San Antonio St, New Braunfels, TX 78130
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Bar and restaurant; standard food and drink prices.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown saloon with ground-floor bar and dining
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1871 · Site of William Gebhardt's 1894 chili powder invention · Comal County Historical Marker · New Braunfels German-Texan commercial heritage · Two documented on-premises deaths (1885, 1900)
John Sippel constructed the saloon building at 193 W. San Antonio Street in 1871, during the period when New Braunfels was developing from its German immigrant settlement of the 1840s into a stable small city. The Phoenix operated as a saloon and café through the late nineteenth century, anchoring the block just off the main plaza.
The building's most cited historical moment of national consequence occurred in 1894, when William Gebhardt, working in the back-room café, devised a commercial process for crushing and drying peppers to produce a consistent dried chili product. Gebhardt's chili powder, launched from this location, became the first nationally distributed spice of its kind.
Two deaths form the core of the building's dark history. In 1885, Walter Krause, identified in historical records as a saloon proprietor, was fatally injured in a barroom altercation on the premises. In 1900, John Sippel — by then struggling with depression and alcohol dependency following the breakdown of his marriage to Johanna Gruene — died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the building.
Prohibition forced the Phoenix to close on June 26, 1918. The building passed through several identities: the Ludwig Building (1922) and the Schmidt Building (1935), housing retail and service tenants. Current owners reopened it as the Phoenix Saloon on March 5, 2010, restoring the original 1871 brick walls and period fixtures. An official Comal County historical marker at the building documents the Gebhardt chili powder connection.
Sources
The haunted reputation of the Phoenix Saloon is rooted in its two documented on-premises deaths, with a third figure attached to the aftermath of Sippel's suicide.
Walter Krause occupies the basement — the space below the main bar where he was injured in the 1885 fight that killed him. The Herald-Zeitung and tour guide Anita Carrera both document reports from guests and staff of drinks being moved, hair being pulled, and laughter — sometimes described as German-language phrases that witnesses can hear but not understand. Owner Ross Fortune has stated that cupboards open wide, doors slam shut, and footsteps cross the roof in the early morning hours.
John Sippel is associated with the second floor, where he died by suicide in 1900. The circumstances recorded in venue and Herald-Zeitung sources establish that Sippel had shot at his wife Johanna Gruene after catching her in an affair, and after she left him he deteriorated and took his own life in the building he had owned for nearly three decades.
Johanna Gruene is the third reported presence — on the first floor and specifically in the ladies' bathroom. Bartender Kristin Hazel told the Herald-Zeitung that guests regularly report doors opening and closing on their own in the bathroom, and that screaming has been heard there without any visible person present. According to the venue's account, Johanna Gruene wore black and refused to remarry for the rest of her life following the events surrounding Sippel's death.
Notable Entities
The saloon operates daily from the 1871 building, with original brick walls and vintage fixtures intact. The basement where Walter Krause's ghost reportedly moves drinks and pulls hair is directly below the main bar.
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