New life for mansion with a storied past
RK Group creates event center at East Side lake estate, tips its hat to notorious politico, building’s history
An architectural gem on the city’s beleaguered East Side, the Red Berry Mansion has a history as colorful as its namesake — the politician, casino opener and possible murderer who built it, Virgil E. “Red” Berry.
Now completely restored by its owner, San Antonio catering firm The RK Group, and with the addition of several facilities, the city’s newest event center still makes playful bows to that history.
The goal of the restoration was to save as much of the original as possible while updating it to satisfy even the most persnickety mother of the bride.
The restoration focused on four areas:
• The French chateau-style mansion, now called the Red Berry Estate — The Mansion.
The three-level building has been completely restored to include a ballroom, a speakeasy-type bar on the lower level and a top-level lounge area, complete with bridal suite and groom’s den.
• Lakeside at the Mansion. The new structure juts out into the lake and includes a large ballroom and covered veranda. • The RK Group headquarters. Located on the opposite side of the lake, this new, 168,000square-foot facility includes corporate offices, meeting and tasting rooms, an industrialstrength kitchen, even a refrigerated ice sculpting room with a viewing window.
• A 12-acre lake that sits between the estate buildings and the headquarters.
It’s been enlarged and deepened, and is now plied by a pair of electric-powered boats. Jamie Kowalski, director of relationship marketing for The RK Group and granddaughter-inlaw of company co-founder Rosemary Kowalski, said she expects the lake to serve as the dramatic centerpiece for many an event at the estate.
She conjured the image of a bride, CEO or other VIP boarding a boat on the headquarters side of the lake and gliding across the placid surface, three fountains spraying water into the air, to make a grand entrance like a celebrity off the Queen Mary.
“We think that’s going to be very popular,” she said.
The estate is located between Gembler Road and Interstate 10, on a rise of land with views of downtown, the AT&T Center and even The RK Group’s former headquarters on the near East Side, which the company sold in 2019.
A complete renovation of the mansion was imperative, Jamie Kowalski said, because it had gotten “dowdy” over the years, its best days seemingly gone forever.
Berry built the mansion in 1951 after winning the 84-acre property in a card game.
Despite being indicted but never convicted in two murders, a strong suspect in a third and convicted for a fourth (he appealed but never was retried), Berry later served six years as a state representative and three as state senator. He raised racehorses on the property and, during his time in office, tried unsuccessfully to legalize parimutuel betting in Texas.
After Berry died in 1969, the property went through several owners until the city purchased
it for $2.25 million in 2012.
Over the next several years, various development proposals were floated until, in 2017, the City Council approved the current master development agreement.
While the city owns the lake, the RK Group owns the estate and headquarters building. The lake is not open to the public, but there is access to it via the soon-to-be-completed Salado Creek Greenway trail, which skirts its western edges.
During the two-year project, what had been a private home was turned into a public facility, with some walls removed to create a ballroom on the ground floor that accommodates 389 guests, the upper level that seats 50 and a casino on the lower level with an occupancy of 239.
Project architects Chesney Morales Partners attempted to salvage as many of the original fixtures and features as possible, although that wasn’t always possible.
The white hexagonal tile in the main entryway is reproduction, but the surrounding black marble is vintage. And the wrought-iron railing on the stairway leading to the
upper and lower floors also is original but has been capped by brass hand railings that keep with the old-timey feel of the place.
When the porte-cochère out front was taken down, the bricks-and-copper fascia were saved and reused to construct a terrace off the ballroom, overlooking the lake. And two grand gates with the initials “RB” that stood at the main entrance to the house were refurbished and now open to the circular drive leading to the front entrance of the mansion.
“We’re happy that we were able to keep so much of the original while using new materials that fit the look of the place,” Jamie Kowalski said.
Over the years, Red Berry ran several casinos,
including one in the mansion basement, which has been reproduced in spirit by The RK Group.
The speak-easy has a dark, clubby feel, right down to the “What’s the secret password?” peephole in the door. The casino will have blackjack, craps and roulette tables, as well as a granite bar and a wall-length bookcase, a portion of which pivots to reveal a door leading to a hidden passageway. More for show than to escape a police raid, the hidden door leads only to a food prep area and the mansion’s IT infrastructure.
Steps away, the newly built Lakeside at the Mansion has a ballroom that opens to an expansive veranda overlooking the lake, the large overhang protection against inclement weather.
“We can keep the doors open even in the rain and in the height of summer; the breeze off the lake drops the temperature inside about 20 degrees,” Jamie Kowalski said.
Initially, plans called for catered food to be prepared in the headquarters building and trucked over. It was later decided to build a complete kitchen in the Lakeside building so all food prep can be done closer by.
While the pandemic delayed the facility’s scheduled opening in May, it recently began welcoming events such as weddings, business meetings and fundraisers.
“This is the first time we’ve had our own place to cater events,” she said. “In the past we’ve always had to go somewhere else. So we’re very excited to
have the estate up and running.”
While Greg Kowalski, the founders’ son and the company’s president, was the primary visionary behind the development, it relied on the expertise of the full company staff. That includes Rosemary Kowalski, who recently celebrated her 96th birthday and still plays an active role in the company she and her late husband, Henry, started in 1946 as a small barbecue restaurant on North Zarzamora Street.
“It’s great to hear her talk about it and great that she’s still around to talk about it,” Jamie Kowalski said. “There’s a lot of her style, her eye, in this place.”