THE WORLD'S MOST HAUNTED PLACES

THE LEMP MANSION, ST LOUIS, MISSOURI, USA

HISTORY: 

Johann Adam Lemp arrived in St. Louis in 1838 from Eschwege, Germany. Originally establishing a mercantile store one of the most popular items he sold was vinegar and beer he brewed himself. He established a brewery for both these products and started selling his beer out of a pub attached to the plant. Before long, Lemp found that the brewery was too small to handle both production and storage so he found a limestone cave south of the city limits. This cave, which was located at the present-day corner of Cherokee and De Menil Place, could be kept.

Adam Lemp died a millionaire on 25 August 1862 leaving the company to his son William. William immediately began a major expansion of the brewery and purchased the five-block area around his father's brewing caves. By the 1870s the Lemp family symbolized both wealth and power, as the Lemp Brewery controlled the St. Louis beer market.

In 1892, the brewery was incorporated as the William J. Lemp Brewing Co. By the middle of the 1890's, the Lemp Brewery made a national presence of themselves after introducing the popular "Falstaff" beer, which is still brewed today by another company.

Following William Lemp, Sr.'s death, William Lemp, Jr. took over as the new president of the William J. LempBrewing Company in November 1904.

In 1906, nine of the large breweries in the St. Louis area combined to form the Independent Breweries Company (now known as IBC, famous for their root beer), creating fierce competition that the Lemp Brewery had never faced. In the same year, William's mother died of cancer on 16 April. Then Prohibition came along in 1919. For a time, Will hoped that Congress would repeal Prohibition but finally gave up and closed the Lemp plant down without notice.  

THE LEMP MANSION: 

William J. Lemp Sr.'s father in law, Jacob Feickert built the mansion in 1868, but even at that time it was certain that Lemp money was used in the construction. In 1876 William Lemp purchased the home outright from Feickert to use as his residence and an auxiliary brewery office. From that point he spent money lavishly increasing the home into a thirty-three room Victorian showplace.

In 1904, when William Lemp, Jr. inherited the family business and vast fortune, he and his wife Lillian Handlan-Lemp began to spend the inheritance. Filling the house with servants, the pair spent huge amounts on carriages, clothing and Lillian had a nasty divorce in 1908, and the brewery was facing its fiercest competition. In 1911 William J. Lemp Jr. transformed the mansion into the new offices of the brewing company. Quite a few changes were made and the front part of the house was altered into private offices, lobbies and rooms for clerks.

Following Prohibition, the family and the mansion suffered a decline. After the death of William Jr., his brother Charles remodeled the mansion back into a home and lived there with one other family member and two servants. Following his death in 1949, the mansion left the Lemp family and was used as a boarding house. Time was not kind to the neighborhood, and the mansion started to decline as its surroundings did.

In the mid 1960's a significant section of the mansion grounds and one of the two carriage houses were lost to the construction of the Ozark Expressway, more commonly called Interstate 55.

Dick Pointer and his family saved the mansion in 1975. It is now a popular bed and breakfast inn with four suites, each named after and previously belonging to a specific Lemp member.  

FAMILY DRAMA: 

William Lemp Jr.'s wife Lillian was a beautiful woman who came from a wealthy family herself. She and William (he preferred to be call "Billy") had married in 1899 and William J. Lemp III was born on 25 September 1900. Before long Lillian became known as the "Lavender Lady" because of her affection for the color and the fact that she commonly dressed in lavender and even had her carriage horses' harnesses dyed to match her lavender garments and garnishes. In the beginning, Will enjoyed showing off his "trophy wife" but Billy was not a faithful husband. In the meantime, Billy was busy running the brewery during the day and pursuing all manner decadent activities during the night. Billy's shenanigans caught up with him when he sired a son with a woman other than his wife.