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This house was constructed in the early 1900's as a private residence for a wealthy local businessman. He died only a few years after completion of the house. Since then, the house has become infamous for reported hauntings and was even featured on Unsolved Mysteries as one of the "most haunted" locations. Supposedly, even the businessman himself haunts the building and turns off light-switches (presumably to save on energy costs-you know how stingy wealthy people can be) and engages in other spiritual shenanigans. Unfortunately, we had no spooky encounters during our lengthy exploration of this site and no ghosts were harmed in the making of this post. It's weird how ghosts only ever seem to haunt ghost-hunters... isn't it?

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The Lemp Mansion was built in 1868 for Jacob Feickert. Jacob's daughter Julia would later inherit the mansion when she married William J. Lemp, the head of what was at the time the largest brewery in Saint Louis; the renowned Lemp Brewery. William and Julia moved into the mansion in 1876. William J. Lemp Sr eventually became the first to commit suicide inside the mansion on February 13, 1904 following the deaths of two people very close to him. His son Frederick Lemp, who was destined to be the heir to the Lemp brewing empire, died unexpectedly at the age of 28 in 1901 and his closest friend Frederick Pabst died on January 1, 1904. Julia Lemp was shortly thereafter found to be suffering from cancer and she subsequently died in 1906.

In 1911, the Lemp Mansion underwent major renovations when it was partially remodeled into temporary offices for the Lemp Brewery. Following the closure of the brewery 11 years later (as a result of prohibition) and the complete liquidation of the brewery at auction, William J. Lemp Jr. committed suicide in the mansion on December 29, 1922. Charles Lemp was the last of the Lemps to live in the mansion wherein he committed suicide on May 9, 1949, after which the mansion became a boarding house and fell into disrepair. The construction of Interstate 55 during the 1960s led to the destruction of much of the grounds but spared the mansion.

It has been said that the Lemp Mansion had a secret tunnel beneath it which led to the Lemp Brewery and/or the Lemp/Cherokee Cave beneath it. On paper, this rumor didn't seem to have much credibility and most people (including myself) who researched it concluded that it was at best "highly unlikely" and the myth was declared "busted". However... all of the prior researchers were limited by their lack of physical access to the location and thus had to rely on roughly the same incomplete documentation. My colleagues and I, on the other hand, are not content with limiting one's research to arm's length. Our subsequent discoveries have definitively re-opened the case of the long-rumored Lemp Mansion Cave Connection. To be clear: there is no tunnel access to or from the mansion or the cave today. Any and all access to the cave from outside the brewery was completely sealed up/bricked off in 1991. The question then becomes: Did the Lemp Mansion ever have a tunnel, prior to 1991? I now believe that it's entirely plausible, based on our discovery of an unexpected and mysteriously bricked off Mystery Tunnel beneath the brewery. The link above explains and provides the most thorough research, evidence and photos that exist on this topic.

The Lemp Mansion is currently a restaurant and inn. Tours are regularly made available, and it is a venue for murder mystery dinner theatre and Halloween parties.

Source(s): Wikipedia, "Lemp The Haunting History" by Stephen Walker

This mansion was owned by a family that was to be an integral part of Saint Louis industry well into the 20th century. Mark Kerckhoff was a German immigrant who started a butter delivery route to Saint Louis in 1887, to which he would later add mil and with that, Pevely Dairy was born. They later won the dairy concession at the 1904 World's Fair in Saint louis from which point the business took off. Sometime around 1915, they began construction on the renowned Pevely Dairy Plant with the iconic sign that stood for nearly 100 years on Chouteau avenue. The massive Pevely Dairy Farm stood on the same property as this mansion, just a short walk away.

The reign of Pevely as the king of Saint Louis dairy products would end, however when the business was bought out and the original location shut down. Everything that once bore the Pevely Dairy name is now demolished.