Table of Contents

The Lemp Brewery

Lemp/Cherokee Cave

Western Cable Railway

Lemp Mansion

Lemp Ephemera

Lemp Advertisements

The Lemp Mansion Cave Connection

The Ghost Photo

A Brief History of The Lemp Brewery

The Lemp Brewing Company was founded as the Western Brewery by Adam Lemp in 1840 in Saint Louis, Missouri. Adam Lemp initially started out as a grocer but quickly moved into the brewery and saloon business which proved to be more popular. The Western Brewery was originally located on Second Street (between Walnut and Elm) where its annual output was initialy around 100 barrels. Within ten years, the brewery had 6 employees with an output of 4,000 barrels and that number would be more than doubled, to 8,300, another 10 years later. By the time prohibition descended upon the enterprise 80 years after it had first begun, the Lemp Brewing Company had established world-renown and was one of the largest breweries in the world with an annual output which exceeded 500,000 barrels. A major contributing factor to this success was the leadership of the brewery throughout its history who proved to be relentless and innovative in the art of operational logistics as well as in the art of brewing; they had developed an unrivaled global distribution network which enabled them to cement the Lemp reputation far beyond the reach of most competitors. By 1891, all shipments from the brewery to destinations outside of Saint Louis began their journey on Lemp's own Western Cable Railway which was an engineering solution that connected the brewery itself to a rail yard located 2000 feet down a steep hill from the plant. Because the grade was too steep for regular locomotives, the Western Cable Railway utilized a hoist and cable system to control a custom designed "grip car" by which to convey product to the railroads for shipment. This was the vehicle by which the Lemp Brewery propelled itself to global domination; With regular shipping routes established to all corners of the United States, plus: Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Hawaii, Cuba, the Philipines, Australia and Europe, Lemp's annual sales totalled 3.5 Million dollars per year. At this time, Lemp reportedly had over 1,200 employees in the Saint Louis area alone. Additional personnel maintained countless satellite offices, usually in the form of shipping depots and ice houses, located in virtually every major city throughout the United States and elsewhere across the world. In 1892, the Western Brewery was officially incorporated as the William J. Lemp Brewing Company with William Sr as president and his son William Jr as vice president. Falstaff, which was introduced in 1899 and quickly became their most popular brew, later earned the title of "first beer to be delivered by airplane" (on Dec 2, 1912) and is said to be the first to be shipped coast-to-coast via refrigerated rail cars. Lemp was indeed counted among, if not the first, "nation-wide" brewery owing to this massive logistics operation. The Lemp Brewing Company, under the leadership of Adam Lemp's son William, had been transformed from a small local brewery/saloon to one of the largest brewers in the United States while also being universally regarded among the top brewers of the day. William J. Lemp Sr. had achieved unimaginable success through good business practices which included investing heavily into brewery improvements and establishing an efficient global distribution network.

As its popularity was soaring and Falstaff was being sold in all corners of the globe in the late 19th century, the now aging brewery was being pushed to its limits in order to keep up with demand and to usher in the best technologcial advancements being introduced at the dawn of a new, modern, century. More efficient methods of brewing greater quantities of beer were being developed in order to stay ahead of the competition as well as to refine the high standards of quality and excellence which Lemp prided itself on. By the late 1870's, artificial refrigeration had rendered underground storage increasingly inconvenient and thus obsolete. Each successive year thereafter seemed to mark new advancements in the brewing arts and members of Lemp's own personnel were on the front lines in this revolution having been highly educated on the subjects as shown by their contributions of numerous technical papers outlining discoveries and innovations which were published by various journals and trade organizations. Their developments literally shaped the state of the brewery that was to come. As the 20th century dawned and the sun rose on the Lemp Brewery on January 1st 1900, its rays illuminated one of the most successful and profitable enterprises in Saint Louis. A bright and seemingly unlimited future shone on the horizon. The time had come for the Lemp Brewery to undergo its second major transformation to refine itself, meet the new century head-on and thereby solidify its hard-earned reputation as one of the most technologically advanced, thoroughly modern breweries in the world.

Out of this era of prosperity and growth arose some of the most prominent, recognizable buildings which still stand today. In rapid succession, beginning in 1901, the Lemp Brewery erected a new world-class Bottling Department, Elevator, Malthouse, Fermenting Department, Power Plant, the tunnels which connect them and the infrastructure which supported them. From 1903 onward, all notable buildings constructed by the Lemp Brewing Company were designed by Guy T. Norton (Architect) with contributions by other notable figures such as William F. Carthaus (Brewmaster) and William Koedding (Master Mechanic) all "under the direct supervision" of William J. Lemp, Jr (who became president of the brewery following the death of William Sr. in 1904). This was the core group which would shape the course of the brewery for nearly the next two decades. In a similar fashion, almost all of the subsequent construction appears to have been carried out by roughly the same group of companies. For example: the Hartman Bricklaying and Construction Company appears to have been involved in every project throughout this period with the only notable exceptions being the elevator and the smoke-stack which were evidently referred to specialists in those particular building methods.

The Lemp Brewery was in its prime and, by all accounts, among the biggest and best in the industry during the early 20th century. There was no end in sight to the overwhelming success and the profits which were pouring in as freely as the beer poured out. But as the 1910's approached the 20's, there was no denying the increasing influence of groups whose aim was the ultimate prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition was subsequently ratified on January 16, 1919 and overnight, the product for which this once state-of-the-art facility was specifically designed to produce was now outlawed, rendering this massive facility along with the massive time, energy and money invested into it, much of it having been freshly completed, all of it now obsolete. In 1920, the rights to the legendary Falstaff beer was sold to Joe Griesedieck who evidently thought that if Lemp wouldn't, then he would try to make something of it once prohibition ended. The Griesedieck Brewery then re-emerged as the Falstaff Brewing Company and that new entity ultimately became itself one of the largest brewers in the United States. But back in 1921, after briefly experimenting with a non-alcoholic beverage they called "Cerva", the Lemp Brewery suddenly closed down. The gates were locked and the massive facility was put up for auction where it sold for roughly 1/10 of its actual value to the International Shoe Company. The once great Lemp brewing empire begun by Adam Lemp in 1840, brought to worldwide prominence by his son William and massively expanded by his son William Jr in the early days of the 20th century, was abruptly brought to its demise practically overnight through no fault of its own. All of these combined factors evidently lead William J. Lemp, Jr into taking his own life in the Lemp mansion shortly after the auction, an act which marked the most unfortunate end to what was arguably the most remarkable pre-prohibition brewing dynasty in the United States.

*Source(s): Lemp - The Haunting History by Stephen Walker. While a variety sources contributed overall to the above "common-knowledge" level of detail I've briefly covered, Stephen Walker's book is the definitive work on the history of Lemp and I have no interest in covering all the same familiar material he and others have covered over the years. Instead, I have dug into a specific time period and specific details of Lemp which have remained generally skipped by most historians before now.

Background

The focus of this article is the Lemp Brewing Company of Saint Louis, Missouri, specficially during the time period from roughly the dawn of the 20th Century right up to its demise in 1921. What follows, therefore, is a visual and descriptive tour of the Lemp brewery during what could be fairly considered its prime. Since that time, there has been a conspicuous lack of surviving historical photos and data by which to visualize the most modern era of the Lemp brewing empire whose buildings remain mostly intact and which are the most recognizable today. This utter lack of documentation is further exacerbated by the fact that most authors seem to skip right past the 20th century altogether and focus instead on the personal dramas such as the deaths/divorce/etc - all of which is gossip material that I couldn't care less about. Even Walker's excellent book referenced above dedicates page after tedious page to scandalous divorce and other personal litigation while only contributing a few sparsely detailed paragraphs to the brewery itself between the death of William Sr in 1904 to its shutting down in 1922. At this time, Lemp was at the height of its success and confidently heading full steam into the future with plans for the massive expansion which became the Lemp brewery complex as we know it today. When the Lemp Brewing Company ceased to exist just a few short years after embarking upon said expansion, there was no guarantee that its own freshly erected brick and stone monuments, which appear to have been built to last forever, wouldn't simply be erased from existence.

For many years, the prevailing belief was that there were no historic photos or documentation from this time to survive beyond the small handful of well-known examples in historic archives (which are included below). This conspicuous historical void of the 20th century era has always been explained away by the fact that various Lemp family member's own personal collections were destroyed upon their deaths. The few photos that have been known to survive were inconveniently spread across a variety of databases spanning the far obscure reaches of the internet, each requiring their own assorted esoteric methods of discovery. The overall lack of historic documentation previously available from this time period had always made it frustratingly difficult to visualize what a fully-operational Lemp Brewery, the same one we'd recognize today, really looked like. Until now, a "complete" historic and visual representation of the Lemp Brewery simply didn't seem to exist, let alone "all in one place", anywhere - neither online nor in-person at the various historical society(ies) or elsewhere for that matter. Having said that, 3 (out of 54) of the below photos of the brewery are courtesy of The Missouri Historical Society (these being among the most well-known photographs to surive to present-day). 11 of the below 54 historic photographs come courtesy of the Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady, NY, and these more recent additions to the collective include some of the best and highest quality photos of Lemp known to exist anywhere, graciously provided in stunning detail via the General Electric archives. The remaining bulk of around 40 photographs, which (despite some being rather low quality) I am grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to the general knowledgebase on the Lemp Brewery. These are the rewards for an unrelenting obsession to uncover every last bit of any hidden/obscure/lesser-known documentation that I could find. I remain hopeful that there are still more out there, somewhere, yet to be discovered. Recognition and gratitude ultimately goes out to the aforementioned organizations along with the various, now defunct, industry publications for originally creating and curating the source material. Thanks to all those stewards of history, we now finally have comprehensive insight into the inner workings of the legendary Lemp Brewing Company during its most successful yet, sadly, final years.

All of the data in the below historical section is either a direct quote or a summary of entirely primary sources from 100-120 years ago. No modern sources were referenced or paraphrased in the following section. Furthermore, I strive to avoid any conjecture or embellishments beyond such as was used in the original source material. To do otherwise would jeopordize both the integrity of this article as well as my own. Any exceptions or expressions of my own will therefore occur as noted in [brackets]. Please note that all of this information is a highly condensed summary/compilation from numerous publicly available sources and citing every individual data point is a daunting task not on my immediate to-do list. Simply making one complete statement or brief description of a photo often required multiple sources carefully weaved together which would make for a confusing mess of quotes/asterisks. I have copies of all sources used here and eventually I will complete the citations, which I've saved for last as it is the least rewarding and most tedious bit of work remaining. Until then, the following will have to suffice: All historic data presented herein is guaranteed by myself to be accurate and/or faithful to the ~120 year old source material and I encourage any scrutiny thereof. Admittedly, however, some of the more specific details on the rather complicated process of fermenting, etc, are a bit vague. For source material, a good place to start is with "The Western Brewer" and the "American Brewer's Review" as they represent a bulk of the material. I encourage others to invest their own time and energy into finding sources and discovering what else may still be out there.

After spending countless hours, over many years of obsessive research, this project is now more or less "complete". Note that I am not paid for, and I do not profit in any way, from the considerable time and effort I have put into everything you see here. Unlike many others, I am motivated solely out of passion for this subject in particular and I engaged in the work primarily for my own personal enjoyment but also to share the knowledge and experiences amongst my colleagues and I. Please also note, and appreciate, the complete lack of advertisements on this site. I have been sitting on this trove for years, waiting until I felt it was safe to finally talk about the one location that was just too good to talk about publicly. And this is the extent of my talking; You will never find me as a speaker at any event or otherwise trying to "cash in" on Lemp. I simply consider myself fortunate to have had the privilege to explore and to research the greatest location I have ever known. I am proud and immensely grateful to now present my contribution to the collective knowledgebase on this topic; This is my ode to the legendary Lemp Brewing Company of Saint Louis, Missouri.

Note that due to the wide variety of obscure sources used, some photographs are, unfortunately, much (much) lower quality than others. Some of these photos are indeed poor quality scans of low dpi newspaper and magazine articles. I have reached out to distant libraries for better copies, I have scoured all known sources and I have photographed rare ephemera to the best of my abilities. This has been a work in progress for over 15 years now and it will remain so, as I will continue to update any and all photos herein to the best quality versions (within reason) which I may find at any later time.

Begin historic photos

The Bottling Department

The new Bottling Department, constructed by Widmann and Walsh in 1901 and continually updated throughout its life, was the pride and centerpiece of the brewery. It was advertised as "The Most Modern Establishment In The World". The Bottling Department was, after all, where Lemp could most clearly and easily display their devotion to modern efficiency in the form of the latest, state-of-the-art, electric-powered machinery. Gone were the loud and inefficient steam engines of the 19th century (although steam was still fully utilized in the power plant where it was used to generate said electricity). Visitors were welcomed to daily tours of the facility which centered around this department in particular, as its automation was seen as a novelty and its cleanliness and purity was heavily advertised.

The bottling department was the point at which this whole carefully refined operation successfully concluded its work. It was a mostly automated process which handled a couple hundred thousand bottles per day, so it was one of the more interesting stops for visitors. Empty bottles were stored in the basement and it was from there that they began their journey through this building. They were carried by elevator to one of nine soaking tanks, after which they were moved to the bottle washers. The next stop was the filling and corking department where they were filled and sealed. The bottles then made their way to the five pastuerizers where each beer was pasteurized in-bottle. Next, they were labeled and then packed for shipping. This building also contained an area called a "Government Cellar" (along with a 300' "Government Tunnel") which was where beer production output numbers were calculated by federal agents for tax purposes. Shortly after completion, in 1902, this department had a daily output of 125,000 bottles per day but within a couple years they were said to be cranking out over 250,000 bottles per day.

Beyond simply the modern hardware and automated processes on display in this facility, the highest standards were employed in every step of the beer's journey to the bottle. A new pipeline ran directly from the fermenting tanks in the cellars straight to the filling machines in the bottling department. This pipeline was kept at the freezing point the entire time and the beer was never exposed to air or light before being bottled after which point each bottle was pasteurized, ensuring an entirely sanitary operation.

The Power Plant

The Elevator

The Malt House

The Fermenting Building

Various Scenes Around The Lemp Brewery in the early 1900's

THE CAVE

End historic photos

Lemp Brewery - Modern Day

The Lemp Brewery is, in my opinion, simply the most awesome location that exists anywhere. It is a unique and critical part of Saint Louis, having contributed significantly to the history and growth of this city through the quality and reputation of its product which reflected upon Saint Louis as a hub of industry and innovation to all corners of the world. The Lemp Brewing complex today is a massive ~13 acre campus comprised of magnificent examples of brick and stone architecture whose defining structures retain their commanding presence over the area and which convey the might and sophistication of the world-renowned Lemp Brewing Company whose success they resulted from and contributed further to, but for whom they are now ghostly reminders of a now haunted brewing empire. Below-ground, the foundations reinforce the permanence which the buildings above seem to exude, as the arched stone passageways and expansive cellars resemble castle-like fortifications secured deep into the earth which branch out into a labyrinth of tunnels and multiple levels of basements and sub-basements. Beneath all this and through a series of vaults, a large natural cave complete with its own unique history (and mysteries) lies hidden away in the remote and solitary darkness where it has always been and from which it all began here so long ago.

The Lemp Brewery complex had endured a period of semi-abandonment in the 1980's following the departure of the International Shoe Company. Before it was sold again around 1992, numerous un-sanctioned parties were known to have been held in vacant portions of the sprawling complex. Up until around 2010, adventurous persons could (allegedly) still find their way inside - with varying degrees of difficulty, or lack thereof. Once the haunted house moved in (along with several other notable tenants circa ~2010), however, everything changed. Security upgrades on-site which were afforded by the obvious success of said paranormal attraction included things like night vision cameras, motion sensors, new locks and even new doors altogether. Additionally: the new maintenance guy knows what he is doing, the current tenants do not tolerate shenanigans or suffer fools and the owners themselves have always been notoriously difficult and hostile. I have stories I could tell.. Suffice to say: If you didn't find a way in before, you done missed out because it's too late now. The only way in now is with permission.

In the case of my comrades and I, we were fortunate to have seized the opportunity to explore Lemp* during the final years in which it still something you could actually sneak into. As such, most of the photos below are from 2010 and earlier and this can be verified by certain visible details. The primary exceptions to this rule are various exterior photos because I was/am often prone to shooting exteriors if I happened to be with camera in the neighborhood. The reason for that should be obvious if you've ever seen this place.

Fueled by our own diligent obsession; a carefully executed, long-term, and thoroughly hands-on exploration and documentation of the Lemp Brewery and cave was embarked upon by a select group of very daring and handsome individuals* the results of which are only now seeing the light of day.

*Allegedly.

It often seems that most persons who seek adventure tend to lack enthusiasm for scholarly research and most researchers don't seem particularly adventurous. I was doubly fortunate in this case for I had like-minded comrades who shared and amplified all of these qualities amongst our group. While we were perhaps not invited, we still treated Lemp with the respect it deserves. We did not destroy property and we did not break in. We did, however, often encounter the work of various obviously dumb assholes who carelessly broke in and left trash behind. We did our best to clean up after them, mostly becase it's the smart thing to do if you ever want to go back. My comrades and I were simply resourceful enough to take advantage of inconsistent perimeter defenses which could be found if you simply looked hard enough and were careful enough to use them without drawing suspicion or leaving evidence. Back then, there were still many mysteries yet to be solved. As just one example: you couldn't even find a complete map of Cherokee Cave online anywhere (this incomplete map was the only one on the whole of the internet). It wasn't until I located and scanned a copy of the complete map (which I found in person at the Missouri Historical Society) that any of us had ever seen the missing section. While small, these types of legitimate discoveries helped fuel our desire to keep chasing the remaining unsolved mysteries of Lemp. These waters were always muddied, however, with murky rumors and embellished stories spread by people with active imaginations and big mouths (usually lacking in details or first-hand experience) whose stories, like ghosts, always seem to fade in the light of scrutiny. But even if only "most of them" were utterly false, they still raised the overall noise level. Intellectual curiosity of a location so legendary and compelling as Lemp demands any serious student of its history to chase every rumor into either discovery or oblivion, regardless of how plausible it may or may not seem. And so we were determined to set the record straight and to filter out the facts from the noise, to find missing maps and discover any other mysteries that had been lurking beneath the surface. We were pretty successful and had a good time. Much has since been published on Lemp since our efforts began but very few, if any, of those authors actually speak with the authority afforded by the type of personal, first-hand experience that you can only gain by actually being there. Especially in regards to certain physical details not found in maps or discernable in photos.

The first rule of fight club is that you do not talk about fight club

If this place was still even semi-recently explorable, I WOULD NOT BE TALKING ABOUT IT just as I have been not talking about it all this time. I've remained silent for over FIFTEEN YEARS since these expeditions originally occurred and long after it was properly secured around 2010. And in case you were wondering: I have continued to periodically re-asses the security and perimeter defenses in place here and I can confirm that it's only become more secure over the years. I didn't just give up on it after 2010. To this day, I still cycle through phases of denial, anger, depression and acceptance over the fact that Lemp is no longer explorable.

Even if you managed to sneak into some little corner of the site today, you're definitely not going to get into the cave and you won't see anything worthwhile in the process. Your attempts would end in failure at which point you would be forced to acknowledge that I was right and now you have to report back to me so that I may dispense the punishment prescribed below which would elicit your inevitable, delicious, tears of failure. In addition to the above, I've heard from others who stubbornly tried sneaking in after I knew it was already too late who found out the hard way that the police responded quickly and brought dogs. In general, the owners and tenants alike have grown extremely aggressive aganist any sort of shenanigans these days. And for all that, I am thankful because that has helped keep out most of the careless/destructive glory seekers who otherwise would have immediately sold this place out for likes without a second thought.

The photos below are from numerous Lemp expeditions over the course of several years leading up to about 2010. The photos themselves represent not only the intended subject matter, but also the evolution of digital camera technology from its early days of pixellated "potato" quality right up to the current generation of professional HD quality cameras. Just counting the times in which I was actively exploring/photographing the site, I made 14 separate expeditions here*. That's not including all the separate trips made for reconaissance, casual sightseeing or simply confessing my love to the brewery in person.

WHY NOW?!?

Aside from the fact that Lemp ceased being an explorable location about a decade ago, there has been a lot of noise written about either the Lemp Brewery, the Lemp Mansion or the cave over the years. The vast majority of this has been sensational, gossipy nonsense and the same old exaggerated rumors. The most notable example of this is a recent youtube video which convinced me that the time has finally come. Earlier this year, some dorks managed to get a tour of the cave and subsequently upload a video on youtube where it has racked up hundreds of thousands of views. That's hundreds of thousands of new eyes on Lemp, shown in the most sensationalized way possible. At this point, there's nothing left that I can possibly be protecting by continuing to not share all this legitimately "good" Lemp content in the form of historic photos and data (plus my own photos and data). Hell, at this point I'm the asshole for not sharing all this high quality content. You're welcome. Their video is frustrating to watch mainly because the hosts claim to have been working on getting in there "for years!" and yet don't seem to know the most basic things about the supposed subject of their video. It's like they just heard about this place for the first time. And everything is a cringey reference to a fictional character, etc. Watch it and I think you'll agree that the only redeeming quality of this video is the knowledgeable tour guide. What I'm getting at is: if they will let THESE fools into Lemp then there's hope for literally ANYONE at this point.

Also... William J. Lemp Jr's 157th birthday (on August 13th) seemed like a good time to finally present my contributions since they specifically highlight the universally overlooked era in which he ran the brewery.

* * * DISCLAIMER * * * WARNING * * *

* * * THE BELOW PHOTOS ARE FROM 2010 AND EARLIER * * *

* * * THIS FACILITY IS NOW COVERED IN CAMERAS, MOTION SENSORS, ALARMS AND LOCKED DOORS * * *

* * * THE BUILDINGS SHOWN HERE HAVE NOT BEEN ACCESSIBLE IN OVER A DECADE * * *

* * * THE CAVE IS NO LONGER ACCESSIBLE WITHOUT PERMISSION * * *

* * * DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GET IN WITHOUT PERMISSION OR I WILL PERSONALLY SLAP YOU IN THE FACE REALLY HARD OR SAY MEAN THINGS TO YOU. UNTIL YOU CRY AND/OR OR WET YOURSELF * * *

Lemp/Cherokee Cave continues on next page