#lemp brewery

[myhauntedsalem]

Lemp Mansion

The Lemp Mansion is regarded as one of the most haunted mansions in the United States. It now operates as a restaurant & inn.

The Lemp Family was rumored to be cursed and they certainly had their share of misfortune. Oddly, four members of the Lemp family took their own lives by shooting themselves.

William Lemp was devastated by his father’s death and withdrew from public life. His health declined and he committed suicide in his bedroom by shooting himself in the head. William’s daughter Elsa committed suicide in 1920 when she grew depressed about her rocky marriage.

William J. Lemp, Jr. and his wife his wife Lillian, known as the Lavender Lady, spent vast amounts of money. William grew tired of his wife and began having affairs with other young women. One of these women gave birth to a child who was afflicted with Down’s Syndrome. The Lemp family were embarrassed by him and kept the little boy hidden in the basement so no one would find out about him. The poor boy spent 30 years in Lemp Mansion, eventually dying in captivity.

The brewery began to decline due to competition and eventually, the Lemp family were forced to close the doors and sell their business at a loss. The failure weighed heavy on William J. Lemp Jr. and he committed suicide in exactly the same way as his father had, by shooting himself in the head.

William Jr.’s brother, Charles, continued to live in the house but he developed a morbid fear of germs. Eventually, he too succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Due to all of the horrible deaths, the Lemp Mansion developed a reputation as one of the ten most haunted places in America. Visitors to the mansion have reported feeling as if they are being watched, or sensing an atmosphere of sadness, and some claim to have seen apparitions of members of the Lemp family.

In the 1970s, workers reported strange things happening in Lemp Mansion, leading many to believe the place was haunted. Reports often varied between feelings of being watched, vanishing tools and strange sounds. Many of the workers actually left the job site and never came back. During the mansion’s restoration, a painter working on a mural felt that he was being watched and immediately fled the mansion, without washing his brushes or taking out his equipment, and never returned.

Since the Lemp Mansion Restaurant & Inn opened, staff members claim to have experienced supernatural events. Glasses have been seen lifting off the bar and flying through the air. Unexplained sounds are often heard and some people have even glimpsed actual ghostly apparitions that appear and vanish at will.

In addition, many customers and visitors to the house report weird incidents. Doors lock and unlock on their own, the piano plays by itself, voices and sounds come from nowhere and the spirit of the Lavender Lady has been spotted in the old mansion.

[archivist-crow]

The Haunted Atlas

Lemp Mansion - St. Louis, Missouri

38°35′36″N / 90°12′58″W

Former residence of a famous brewing magnate, whose tragic multiple family suicides have made it one of America's most haunted houses.

History

The Lemp mansion, in St. Louis, Missouri, stands four stories tall and has 34 rooms. It was built in the 1860s for William Lemp, president of Lemp's Brewery, as a wedding gift from his father-in-law. Lemp was the son of John Adam Lemp, a German brewmeister who immigrated to the United States in 1838. The elder Lemp opened a small brewery and made German lager, which was an instant success. Lemp died in 1862, and son William inherited the business. A shrewd businessman, he turned Lemp's Brewery into the largest brewery in the world, producing 900,000 barrels a year for an international market. The plant covered 11 city blocks. The mansion overlooked the brewery.

William Lemp and his wife had seven children and lived a glamorous lifestyle among the cream of St. Louis society. Eldest son Frederick was the favorite and was groomed to take over the family business. He was shrewd like his father and learned the brewing business well. But tragedy struck in 1901: on a trip to Pasadena, California, Frederick, who was only 28, had a heart attack and died.

William never recovered from his grief. One day in 1904, he walked into the marble office of the mansion and shot himself to death in the heart with a small caliber pistol.

The family business went to William Lemp Jr., who was not as astute in business as was his brother. He and his wife, Lillian, daughter of the wealthy Handlan family, lived an extravagant life, spending freely on clothes, expensive furnishings and art. William Jr. built three vaults in the mansion to house his vast art collection. Lillian, who favored lilac-colored clothing, was called "The Lavender Lady."

When the Prohibition law was passed in 1919, the brewery was forced to close. Other breweries switched to making ice cream and low-alcohol "near bear," but Lemp's Brewery never adapted, and the family fortunes declined drastically. In 1920, William Jr's older sister, Elsa, one of the wealthiest women in St. Louis, committed suicide by shooting herself with a small caliber gun. She did not do it at the mansion, however.

William Jr. sold the business in 1922 for a fraction of its worth: 8¢ on the dollar. Six months later, on December 29, the despondent William committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart with a small-caliber gun—just like his father. He was found seated in the marble office where his father had died.

In 1949, another sibling, Charles, went into the mansion's basement one morning with his dog. With a small-caliber gun, he shot the dog in the head and then shot himself to death. He was 77. A strange man, he had been very attached to the mansion. He had an extreme fear of germs and wore gloves most of the time.

Brother Edwin sold the family mansion. He had moved out of it in 1917 to escape its oppressive atmosphere of gloom. He never married and had no heirs. Perhaps out of fear that he, too, might commit suicide, he kept a companion with him at all times. He died of natural causes in 1970 at age 90.

The mansion became a boardinghouse and deteriorated over time. In the mid-1970s, it was purchased by Dick Pointer Jr., and his father, who planned to renovate it into a restaurant and inn.

Haunting Activity

Strange things happened during the renovation, which was completed in 1977. Pointer Jr. and various workmen lived in the house while the work was being done. One night while lying in bed, Pointer heard a door slam, even though no one else was in the house at the time. Another time a workman heard the sounds of horse's hooves on cobblestones outside his window—though no cobblestones were there. Months later, Pointer dug up grass beneath the window and discovered cobblestones, where horses surely traveled during the Lemps' glory days. Tools disappeared, and workers felt watched by invisible eyes. Some became so spooked that they left without completing their jobs.

Haunting phenomena continued after the restaurant opened. Glasses lifted off bars and flew through the air, mysterious voices and noises were heard, filmy apparitions were glimpsed, doors locked and unlocked on their own, and a ghostly piano played. Some witnesses say they have seen the ghost of Lillian, the Lavender Lady. An oppressive and sad atmosphere clings to the marble office where William Lemp Sr. and Jr. ended their lives. It became a front dining room in the renovation.

Most of the activity is attributed to the ghost of strange Charles. A neighbor of the Lemps said she sometimes saw a face staring out the mansion's attic window and speculated that the Lemps had an eighth child who may have been retarded and thus hidden away, and who also might be responsible for the hauntings. No records of an eighth child exist, however.

Text from The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Third Edition by Rosemary Ellen Guiley (Checkmark Books - 2007)

[geeknik]

31 Days of Halloween: Day 19, The Enigmatic Lemp Mansion of St. Louis

On the 19th day of our eerie expedition, we delve into the heart of St. Louis, Missouri, to uncover the mystifying tales enveloping the Lemp Mansion. This grandiose structure, once the epitome of wealth and success, now stands as a somber emblem of tragedy and the supernatural. As we journey through its haunted halls, we'll discover the entangled narrative of the Lemp family's fortune and downfall, intertwined with eerie apparitions and ghostly echoes from a bygone era.

Historical Background

The Lemp Mansion, situated in the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis, was once the residence of the affluent Lemp family, whose lineage traced back to Johann Adam Lemp, a German immigrant. The family's fortune burgeoned with the establishment of the Lemp Brewery, which introduced lager beer to St. Louis in the 1840s. Under the stewardship of William J. Lemp, the brewery flourished, and by the 1870s, the Lemp Brewery was a household name, synonymous with quality and tradition.

However, the prosperous epoch was ephemeral. The Lemp family faced an inexorable streak of calamities, beginning with Frederick Lemp's demise in 1901, followed by William J. Lemp's suicide in 1904. The advent of Prohibition in 1919 further plunged the family into despair, leading to the brewery's closure and a string of subsequent tragedies, including more suicides within the family.

Haunting Tales

The murky legacy of the Lemp Mansion is inexorably intertwined with the melancholic narrative of the Lemp family. The mansion is said to be rife with spectral activities, many of which are believed to be the unrestful spirits of the Lemp lineage. Among the most unsettling tales is that of the "Monkey Face Boy," an illegitimate child of William Lemp, who was allegedly concealed in the attic due to his Down Syndrome, and whose spirit is claimed to still lurk within the mansion's haunting halls.

Exploring the Lemp Mansion

For those with a penchant for the paranormal, the Lemp Mansion proffers an array of ghostly expeditions. The "Lemp Experience" is a notable event that allows intrepid souls to delve into the mansion's eerie enigma every other Thursday from December to August, with additional days in the fall months. Moreover, the Lemp Legacy Tour, dubbed "St. Louis’ Most Haunted Ghost Tour," guides guests through the mansion’s spectral spaces on Tuesday nights, revealing the cryptic chronicles encased within its walls.

Other chilling ventures include Halloween night ghost tours accompanied by Brick City Paranormal, offering a spooky exploration of the mansion's haunted halls while sipping on creepy cocktails. The mansion also hosts various paranormal investigations, séances, and ghost hunting equipment for those seeking a deeper encounter with the unknown.

Conclusion

As we conclude our 19th day of spooky sojourns, the Lemp Mansion stands as a poignant emblem of a family’s affluence turned affliction, veiled in an aura of mystery and ghostly whispers. The mansion invites the brave to traverse its haunted halls, to unveil the spectral narratives veiled within, and to experience firsthand the chilling tales that have rendered the Lemp Mansion a legendary haunted haven in St. Louis, MO.

[searchingseries]

Come sit at my table for this late night seance on Valentine's Day at the Haunted Lemp Brewery Complex. We will invite the departed, consult Spirit Guides and reveal Past Lives. seeAghost.com

[brookstonalmanac]

Beer Events 12.12

Events

Don Alfonso de Herrera granted permission to build the 1st brewery in the Americas (Mexico; 1543)

Jacob Seeger and John Boyd patented an Improvement in Preserving and Using Hops in Brewing (1871)

Fredrick Lemp died (1901)

Samuel Bennett patented a beer keg Valve (1911)

California Brewing Association 1st released their beer in cans (1935)

Hamm's Brewing 1st released their beer in cans (1935)

Gerald Peet patented a Keg (1939)

Glen Cole and Wayne Miller patented a Beer Can Holder (1967)

Anheuser-Busch broke ground on their Jacksonville, Florida facility (1967)

Ballantine & Sons patented a Beer Keg Fitting (1967)

Schell Brewing bottled their one-millionth case (Minnesota; 2007)

孙尤海, 王培忠 and 卜堃, 费义常 patented a Blueberry Beer and Brewing Method Thereof (2007)

Stone 12.12.12 Vertical Epic Ale was released (2012)

Thomas Stein patented an End Table with Concealed Built-In Refrigerator (2013)

Breweries Opened

Gambrinus Brewing (Ohio; 1993)

Hereford & Hops Brewpub (Michigan; 1994)

Four Peaks Brewing (Georgia; 1996)

Bierbrier Brewing (Quebec, Canada; 2005)

[whitepolaris]

The Lemp Mansion

by Troy Taylor

The Lemps came to prominence in the mid-1880s as one of the premier brewing families in the country. By the 1870s, Lemp's Western Brewery was the largest of the thirty breweries in St. Louis, with E. Anheuser Company's Bavarian Brewery (later Anheuser-Busch) coming in second. Yet today the Lemp family is largely forgotten, remembered more for the house they built than for the beer they once brewed. That house stands today as a memorial to wealth, tragedy, and suicide.

In 1977, the house was converted into a restaurant, and bed-and-breakfast accommodation followed in the year 2000. Yet the past lives on. By day, the mansion bustles with diners and employees; but at night, after the doors have been locked tight, something still walks the halls.

Are the ghosts of the spirits of the Lemp family still unable to find rest? Quite possibly, for this unusual family was as haunted as their house is purported to be today.

Boom, Bust, Death

Adam Lemp, a German master brewer from Hennen, immigrated to America in 1836, settled in Cincinnati, and moved to St. Louis in 1838. There he opened a small grocery store whose wares include his homemade vinegar and beer. Two years later, he founded a brewery that produced some of the nation's first lager. Success followed, and his son William inherited the company on Adam's death in 1862.

By the mid-1890s, what had become that William J. Lemp Brewing Company was known all over America, having been the first brewery to distribute beer coast-to-coast. Its success was echoed by the Lamp family's mansion, which would boast 33 rooms, elegant artwork, handcrafted wood decor, ornately painted ceiling, large beautiful bathrooms, and an elevator.

Over time, the family's happiness and success gave way to despair. A combination of competitor mergers, bad equipment, the growing temperance movement, and the arrival of Prohibition in 1919 proved devastating. The brewery's introduction of a nonalcoholic malt beverage called Cerva kept it hanging on for a while, but one day the employees arrived to work to find the giant plant's doors and gates locked. What had the nation's third largest brewery in its heyday was no longer in business. In 1922, the plant was auctioned off to the International shoe Company, which would operate there until it sold the complex in 1992.

The brewery's decline was paralleled by the tragic deaths of five Lemp family members over a forty-eight-year period. The first was Frederick Lemp, William Lemp, Sr.'s, favorite son and heir apparent, who died in 1901 at the age of twenty-eight from heart failure.

A sad chain of suicides, three of which occurred in the Lemp Mansion, followed Frederick's death. The first that of his still grieving father, in February 1904. William senior shot himself in the head with a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, and no suicide note was ever found.

The March 1920 suicide of daughter Elsa Lemp Wright-considered the wealthiest heiress in St. Louis-didn't occur at the mansion; but she, too, failed to leave a note. When William Lemp, Jr., (Will) and his brother Edwin arrived at her house after the suicide, Will said "That's the Lemp family for you."

Truer words were never spoken: The next suicide was Will's, in December 1922. At the time, he was at work in the Lemp mansion, which had been converted into offices. Though seemingly cheerful and full of plans for the future the week before, Will was depressed over the collapse of the brewing dynasty and had become nervous and erratic. While his staff was elsewhere in the building, he shot himself in the heart with a .38-caliber revolver. And like his father and sister, Will left no suicide note. His son William III ran into his father's office after it happened and knelt beside his father's body. "I was afraid was coming," he cried.

Will's brother Charles was the last family member to commit suicide. After moving back into the Lemp mansion in 1929, when it again became a private residence, he grew more bitter and eccentric the longer he lived. In May 1949, a servant discovered Charles dead from a bullet wound to the dead. He was the only one of the family who left a suicide note, in which he had written, "In case I am found dead, blame it on no one but me."

In the interim, William III died of a heart attack in 1943, at the age of forty-two-yet another death in a family stalked mercilessly by the Grim Reaper.

The Hauntigns Begin . . .

It didn't take long for stories of the hauntings of the newly vacant mansion to begin circulating. Shortly after Charles's suicide in 1949, a young girl and her friends managed to get in and started up the main staircase to the second floor. Just as they reached the first-floor landing, they looked up and saw a filmy apparition coming down the steps. The young girl later described it as an almost human-shaped puff of smoke.

Later, after the mansion was sold and converted to a boardinghouse, residents often complained of hearing ghostly knocks and phantom footsteps. Soon it became hard to find tenants, and the old Lemp Mansion was rarely filled. Like the surrounding neighborhood, it slowly deteriorated.

Richard "Dick" Pointer and his family purchased the mansion in 1975 and worked to turn it into a restaurant. They soon discovered they weren't alone in the house. Workers reported strange occurrences, including feelings of being watched, vanishing tools, and strange sounds. Many of the workers left the job site and never came back.

A painter who worked on the ceiling stayed overnight in the house while he completed the job. He claimed he heard horse's hooves on the cobblestones outside. The Pointers dismissed the claim until Dick Pointer later discovered a layer of cobblestones beneath the topsoil just beyond the painter's room and realized that this portion of the grounds had been a driveway to the carriage house.

Another artist, brought in to restore the painted ceiling in one of the front dining rooms, was laying on his back on the scaffolding when he felt what he believed was a "spirit moving past him." It frightened him so badly that he fled the house without his brushes and tools. Later, after the Lemp Mansion restaurant had opened for business, an elderly visitor told the staff that he had once been a driver for the Lemp family. He explained that the painting on the ceiling in the dining room had been papered over because William Lemp hated it. On hearing the story, staff members noted that the artist restoring the painting had gotten the impression that the "spirit" he encountered was angry. Had the late William made his contempt known?

. . . and Continue

During the renovations, Pointer's son Dick junior lived alone in the house. One night he was lying in bed reading when he heard a door slam in another part of the house. No one else was supposed to be there, and he was sure he had locked all the doors. Fearing that someone might have broken in, he and his dog, a large Doberman, decided to take a look around. All the doors had been locked, just as Dick junior had left them. The same thing happened again about a month later; but again, the young man found nothing.

Ever since the restaurant opened its doors, staff members and customers alike have had odd experiences. Glasses have been seen to lift off the bar and fly through the air, unexplained sounds are often heard, and people have glimpsed apparitions who appear and vanish at will. Some visitors claim that the doors lock and unlock on their own, the piano in the bar plays by itself, and voices come from nowhere.

Late on evening when Dick junior was bartending, the water in a pitcher began swirling around of its own volition. Pointer thought he was just seeing things, but the customers who were still there swore they saw it, too. Then one night in August 1981, Dick junior and an employee were startled to hear piano start playing a few notes by itself. Not only was nobody near the piano at the time, but there was no one else in the entire building.

On one morning, a waitress encountered an unusual customer. Though the restaurant hadn't opened for business, she spied a dark-haired man seated at a table in the rear dining room. Surprised, she went over to ask if he would like a cup of coffee. He simply sat there and didn't answer. She frowned and looked away for just a moment. When she looked back, the man had vanished.

Planchettes and a Séance

Not surprisingly, the Lemp Mansion has attracted ghost hunters from around the country. Guests can be entertained at the establishment's Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre and also sign up to attend the annual Halloween party.

The hauntings first gained attention after an investigation was conducted in the mansion in October 1979 by St. Louis "Haunt Hunters" Phil Goodwilling and Gordon Hoener. At the time, they taught class on ghosts at St. Louis University, so they brought their students and even a local television crew along.

The students were divided into groups of four and given writing planchettes for contacting the spirits. Like the Ouija board, the planchette is used to spell out messages from ghosts.

One of the groups asked, "Is there any unseen presence that wishes to communicate?"

"Yes," the pencil tip of the planchette scrawled on the surface.

The students asked another questions: "Will you identify yourself?"

The planchette scratched out "Charles Lemp."

After the name was revealed, the spirit added that he had taken his own life. Asked why he did this, the spirit replied in three words: "Help, death, rest." Goodwilling later noted that the students who received this message were the most skeptical in his class. He also noted that no one in the room that night, with the exception of Dick Pointer, had any idea that Charles Lemp had committed suicide; the history of the house had yet to be widely publicized.

In November, the Haunt Hunters returned to the house, bringing along a camera crew from the television show Real People. Goodwilling and Hoener participated in a séance with two other people, neither of whom had any idea about the part history of the mansion.

Once they made contact with the spirit who identified himself as Charles Lemp, they asked why he had committed suicide. Among the words that could be made out in his reply were ". . . damn Roosevelt." Apparently, the Lemps had been less than fond of the politics of FDR.

The séance continued with the next question from the group: "Is there a message for someone in this house?"

The answer came: "Yes, yes. Edwin, money."

Goodwilling felt that if the spirit was indeed Charles Lemp, he probably became active because of the remodeling in the 1970s or perhaps because he had something to tell his brother Edwin. During the séance, Charles may have believed that Edwin was still alive and was trying to pass along a message about money. Could this be what caused Charles's ghost to remain behind? Could there be a secret treasure hidden somewhere in the house? If so, it has yet to be found.

The Lemp Mansion Today

Is the Lemp Mansion still haunted? Most visitors, especially the ghost hunters, will tell you that it is. One of the owners, Paul Pointer, considers the ghosts are just another part of the mansion's ambience. "People come here expecting to experience weird things," he said, "and fortunately for us, they're rarely disappointed."

Paul sometimes tells visitors of his own observations and eerie encounters, but he prefers to let them experience the hauntings on their own. Many guests have reported feeling ghostly cold chills, seeing moving objects, and hearing creaking footsteps. Just as many have taken bizarre photographs in the house-photos with images that seem to have no explanation. Given the evidence, it seems that the once triumphant but ultimately defeated Lemps-or some of them, at least-just can't bear to leave their family home.

[badgmproductions]

Build time…

[itsthevioletqueen]

A random video of a haunted house walkthrough got recommended to me and I got hooked on watching it. These are my personal favorite animatronics from the haunted attraction.

But I am not willing to go a haunted attraction myself. I would rather take a ticket to my grave than to go through a haunted attraction like this in person.

The first three monsters are from “The Darkness”, while the last one is from “House of Occult” or “Lemp Brewery Haunted House.”

[husheduphistory]

Legacy Lost: The Tortured First Family of St. Louis Lager

Johann "Adam" Lemp arrived in St. Louis, Missouri in 1838, one of the thousands of new faces pouring into the country in the decades before the Civil War. He was originally from Germany and while in his home country he learned the art of brewing beer from his father, a skill he carried with him to his new home. Arriving in the United States, Lemp aspired to be a grocer but within a few years the entire trajectory of his life and the lives of his family made the first of many sharp turns. The first turn brought fortune to the Lemp name, but the others made it synonymous with tragedy.

While making a living as a grocer two of Lemp’s best selling products were his homemade vinegar and beer. The German population around St. Louis was booming and one thing that the region lacked was authentic German lager, a void that Lemp recognized and knew he was capable of filling. The light, golden drink was a welcome alternative to English ales and within two years Lemp was able to close his grocery store for bigger and better things. He built a small brewery, Western Brewery, at 112 South Second Street unofficially igniting the brewing industry in St. Louis and cementing his path to unimaginable wealth.

Lemp sold his beer in a small bar attached to his brewery but before long the demand for the beverage outgrew his buildings. The brewing operation needed more space and the solution came in the form of another structure that had been around since long before the Lemp family, St. Louis, or even Missouri, was born. Just south of the city limits were limestone caves and the cave’s climate combined with ice farmed from the nearby river provided the perfect atmosphere for the lager process. Lemp’s business thrived and in August 1862 Adam Lemp died a multi-millionaire, passing his empire to his son, William J. Lemp.

The 1860s and 1870s were hugely transformative times for the Lemp family. In 1864 William Lemp built a new plant for the brewery covering five city blocks and connecting to the caves where his family brand of beer was perfected. He continued to expand the company, becoming the largest single-owner brewery outside of New York City. In 1867 his son William Jr. was born. He would have five more children, but it was his fourth son Frederick, born in 1873, who was William’s favorite and who he planned to have inherit the family business. In 1868 William Lemp’s father-in-law had built a thirty-three room mansion close to the brewery and William Lemp and his family moved in in 1876. The mansion served as both a home and a satellite office with tunnels connecting the basement to the limestone caves. As the 1800s came to a close the Lemp family was the picture of wealth, success, and power. It was a prosperous, happy time for the Lemp family, just before it all crashed down around them.

The Lemp Mansion circa 1982. 

Postcard showing the sprawling Lemp brewery complex.

The first tragic blow to St. Louis’s most prominent family occurred on December 12th 1901 when Frederick, William’s favorite son and heir to the family business, unexpectedly died of heart failure at the age of only twenty-eight years old. The effect on William was instant, rendering him despondent and marking the beginning of a slow decline. After the death of Frederick the elder Lemp became disconnected, anxious, and he stopped going out in public, placing himself into a self-imposed and tormented solitude. The spirit of William Lemp was still broken on New Years Day 1904, the day his closest friend Frederick Pabst passed away. Lemp fell deeper into disconnect and became indifferent to the everyday operations of his business and family. On the morning of February 13th 1904 William J. Lemp Sr. walked into his bedroom and shot himself in the head.

William J. Lemp Sr. 

Newspaper story covering the suicide of William J. Lemp.

With the elder William Lemp and his brother Frederick gone the brewing business passed into the hands of William Jr., also called “Billy”, a man who most say was far better at partying and manipulation than running the family business. In 1899 William married Lillian Handlan and they welcomed their son, William J. Lemp III in September 1900, only four years before he was handed the brewery under the unfortunate circumstances of his father’s suicide. While Lemp cultivated the image of a hard partyer who did only what he pleased, his wife Lillian was coined with the nickname of the “Lavender Lady” due to her obsession with the color that took over her clothing, accessories, and even her horse’s harnesses. Lillian was surrounded by luxury, but it was forced upon her. Billy was forever hosting lavish late-night parties filled with friends, alcohol, and prostitutes, and he soon grew tired of his wife. Looking to keep her out of the picture Lemp began demanding that his wife shop on a near constant basis, giving her $1,000 a day and telling her that if she did not spend it he would never give her another cent. Finally, in 1908 Lillian filed for divorce from Billy citing desertion, cruelty, and indignities. The highly publicized divorce proceedings were a huge scandal in the St. Louis region and crowds gathered at the courthouse eager to hear the horrid details of the Lemp home. What prying ears could not pick up from outside the courthouse the eyes devoured from all the regional newspapers who dedicated their front pages to the ordeal. On day eleven in court Lillian, the Lavender Lady, appeared wearing solid black and before she left she was granted sole custody of the pair’s son.

William J. “Billy” Lemp Jr.

Lillian Handlan Lemp.

Billy Lemp built a less than flattering reputation for himself for many reasons but there is one part of his life that has never been able to be fully confirmed. Allegedly, one of Lemp’s many affairs led to a second son being born. The child was said to have Down Syndrome and because of this he was shuttered into the attic of the Lemp Mansion, never to be seen or heard. When interviewed in later years former employees of the family claim that there was in fact a secret son sequestered to living in the attic and servant quarters but there has never been any documentation found definitively proving his existence.

The Lemp family was beginning to enter even darker days but a small glimmer of happiness arrived in 1910 when Elsa, the youngest daughter of William Sr., married Thomas Wright, president of the More-Jones Brass and Metal Company. Amid the celebration there was a pallor of concern. Several years earlier in 1906 nine of the largest breweries in the St. Louis region combined to form the Independent Breweries Company and created a level of competition the family had never faced before. Billy Lemp continued to run the business as best he could, but he had no way of knowing the blows set to strike both his business and his family before the next decade arrived.

The first bit of bad news came in 1918 when Elsa and her husband first separated and then entered into a messy divorce in February 1919 citing cruelty and damage to her physical and metal wellbeing. This was unfortunate but the next hardship to hit the Lemp family extended far beyond their local courthouse, Prohibition had arrived.

The Lemp brewery was struggling before Prohibition but the movement officially hammered the nails into the business’s coffin. The family created a brand of non-alcoholic beer but already wildly wealthy, Billy Lemp saw no reason to even attempt to keep the brewery afloat. The employees of Western Brewery were made aware that their jobs were gone when they arrived at work one day to find the buildings locked. The closing of the brewery took a toll on Billy Lemp but he was not the only member of his family who was feeling themselves slip away. Elsa and her ex-husband Thomas reunited and remarried in March 1920. Within days, on March 20th 1920 Elsa, the wealthiest heiress in St. Louis, entered the bedroom of their home, sat in bed, and shot herself in the head just as her father had done sixteen years earlier.

Elsa Lemp Wright.

Newspaper story covering the suicide of Elsa Lemp Wright.

As the Prohibition years moved forward the Lemp family and their massive brewery complex continued to deteriorate. As the head of the business Billy was tasked with the liquidation of assets and he began to auction off the buildings and sell any trademarks. At its peak the Lemp brewery consisted of twenty-seven buildings, covered ten city blocks, and was valued at seven million dollars. On June 28th, 1922 it was all sold at auction to International Shoe Co. for $588,500. One piece of the ruined family legacy that they fiercely held onto was the family mansion. In a turn that closely resembled his father after the death of Frederick, after the death of the brewery Billy became reclusive, anxious, increasingly ill, and began to shun appearing in public. Six months after the sale on December 29th 1922 Billy went into his office on the main floor of the mansion and took his own life with a gunshot to the heart.

Newspaper covering the suicide of Billy Lemp.

With Billy, Elsa, and Frederick Lemp all deceased there were only three other siblings remaining to take over the family home. Charles, Edwin, and Louis all removed themselves from the brewery in its later years with Charles leaving in 1917 to go into banking and Edwin retiring in 1913 to live quietly in Kirkwood, Missouri dedicating his time to charitable causes. In 1929 Charles Lemp took up residency in the old family mansion where he lived with his dog, two servants, an unrelated married couple, and allegedly the hidden son of his brother Billy.

Charles may have been removed from the family home and business but he was not immune from the turmoil that had plagued his father and siblings. During his time in the mansion he became incredibly bitter an increasingly obsessive about germs, constantly washing his hands and never without a pair of gloves to protect himself. In 1931 his brother Louis died of natural causes and it is said that during Charles’s stay in the mansion Billy’s secret son died inside the home in his 30s. In April 1941 Charles penned an unusual letter to a St. Louis funeral home stating that in case of his death his body was to be taken directly to the Missouri Crematory with no change of clothing or bathing to take place. He went on to instruct that his ashes were to be put inside a wicker box and buried on his farm with no funeral or notice to the public about his death. Eight years later on May 9th 1949 he wrote another note reading: “St. Louis Mo/May 9, 1949, In case I am found dead blame it on no one but me. Ch. A. Lemp". After writing the note he first shot his dog in the basement and then walked up to the second floor of the mansion where he shot himself in the head. He was found the next day, still holding the gun in his hand.

Newspaper covering the suicide of Charles Lemp.

With Billy, Elsa, Charles, Louis, and Frederick gone the last remaining Lemp was Edwin. Quiet and reclusive, Edwin never moved into the mansion and after the death of Charles it was sold and turned into a boarding house. Edwin lived until the age of ninety when he died of natural causes in 1970. Among his last wishes was that all of the family’s collected art pieces, documents, and Lemp family artifacts be destroyed. A butler fulfilled his wishes, burning everything that remained and reducing it to dust along with the legacy of the Lemp family.

The Lemp mansion had a difficult existence after the demise of its founding family. Tenants were difficult to keep and the building fell into disrepair. It was not until 1975 that the building was purchased by a member of the Pointer family and turned into a restaurant and inn.

Today the Lemp Mansion still stands at 3322 De Menil Place in St. Louis, Missouri where it hosts private events, weddings, holiday events, tours and offers delicious dinners year round to hungry visitors. The site is intensely historic, but it is also allegedly one of the most haunted locations in America with regular sightings and experiences from both employees and visitors. For the brave of heart, the Lemp Mansion offers overnight stays and ghost tours where the tragic story of the Lemp family is explained, explored, and investigated.

When Adam Lemp arrived from Germany in 1838 he was just looking for a livelihood and instead found a route to power and fortune beyond his wildest dreams. The Lemp family had a meteoric rise in the United States, but the fall was absolutely devastating with the fortune, alcohol, and entire family, being washed away by their own blood.

The Lemp Mansion.

Relics of the Lemp brewery complex still standing today.

[darkouter]

how was i gone so long that my QUEUE RAN OUT ON ME that thing was FULL

anywho i went to the lemp mansion, the wedding, came back, and classes have begun this week.  i already miss the lemp.  i made an OC based on the lemp family and general beer barons of st. louis to cope.  will i actually be able to put him on here and rp him?  we don’t know, it’s a mystery.  i should stop making characters no one wants to rp with, and yet we are here.  his name is frederick foulks, he is the heir to the foulks brewery, he is a family annihilator, and he became a revenant/poltergeist/paranormal Thing after committing the murder-suicide because he was such a shitty person that he just had to keep the fun going by crawling out of bellafontaine cemetery to go and haunt his properties.  ✊😔

i should go do drafts

[beckerrarebooks]

Falstaff beer advertisements, 1909-1915. 

Prior to Prohibition, Falstaff beer was bottled by the Lemp Brewery in St. Louis, MO. The Lemp family, which founded and operated the brewery, are today remembered not only for their beer, but also for a series of untimely deaths within the family and for their (supposedly) haunted mansion. Falstaff beer, which was later acquired and manufactured by an outside company, was originally named for the carousing Shakespearean character, who you can see featured in several of these ads.

These and many more vintage ads can be found in the digitized Washington University Hatchet yearbooks.

The ads date from 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, and 1915.

[thesehauntedhills]

This picture was taken at Lemp Mansion. Lemp Mansion is a notoriously haunted house that was built in the 1860s in St. Louis, Missouri. The Lemp family has been plagued with shocking tragedies, especially a string of suicides that took place in the home. Could one or more of the the Lemp family still walk about the old home, still suffering from the demise of the family's brewery business. This is evidence of the Lemp Mansion's hauntings and that something is going on.

[wrong-brothers]

Lemp Brewery

Canon T3i

6.19.2019

[myhauntedsalem]

Lemp Mansion Spirit

A St. Louis paranormal research group believes the photo shows a ghostly woman at the infamous Lemp Mansion. Do you think they’re right?

The Lemp family made their fortune in beer, dominating the St. Louis beer market with the Lemp Brewery and Falstaff brand beer. However, depression plagued the prominent family, and three Lemps committed suicide in the family home between 1904 and 1949. A fourth Lemp shot herself in a separate residence.

Today, the Lemp Mansion is a restaurant and inn, not to mention one of America’s most haunted homes. Tales of ghostly knocks, phantom footsteps, disembodied voices, and sightings of a deformed spirit in the attic are just a few of the strange events said to occur at the historic property.

[searchingseries]

Next Sunday, April 14th at 1:30pm, join the Candlelit Seance in the dark and creepy basement of the Haunted Lemp Brewery. Only 10 tickets available at https://book.peek.com/s/40cae936-3ad5-4ad3-a8e9-9ebe0d21c327/REkYR?fbclid=IwAR2CdJQC6hM9Vd_RDiTbTsUDS5qcyOgt9Neu8BXYpzuoZzRBwCSWy8fTCEg_aem_AUXxlGMhbdpJWGEefmm1VF8Q73qHYVFAueKL6I66ZCjo_LG3hi9-TX82pJyuxTxfvD7NbyB-c5SbfutdaMgXJv07

[brookstonalmanac]

Beer Events 12.3

Events

William J. Lemp married Julia Feickert (1861)

James Thomson patented an Improvement in Stamp-Cancelers (1872)

Samuel Davidson patented an Apparatus for Drying Hops (1889)

Herman Zwieg died (1896)

McEwan Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland opened (1897)

Harvey Blackburn patented a Beer Coil Cleaner (1907)

John Hurley patented a Beer Cooler (1912)

Abraham Cohen patented a Beer Dispensing System (1935)

Hans Distler patented the Production of a Special Beer with a Low Percentage of Sugar (1940)

Miguel Hernandez patented a Beer and Malt Beverage Concentrates and Process for Producing Same (1963)

Bill Covaleski & Ron Barchet met on a school bus, 20 years before founding Victory Brewing Co. (1973)

Franz-Wilhelm Schimpf and Willfried Rinke patented the Preparation of a Low Alcohol Dietary Beer (1974)

Intellivision debuted (1979)

International Trappist Association founded (1997)

Eugene Probasco patented a Hop Plant Named “Millennium-Late” (2002)

Breweries Opened

Colorado Brewing (Colorado; 1995)

Tahoe Mountain Brewing (Nevada; 1996)

Titletown Brewing (Wisconsin; 1996)

Wild Horse Brewing (Canada; 1996)

Silva Brewing (California; 2016)