The Haunted Lemp Mansion in St. Louis
History tells of the downfall of affluent families, their legacy devastated by the effects of time, political turmoil, and maybe even a touch of madness. During the mid-19th century, the Lemp family rose to significant fame in the United States shortly after its patriarch left a life in Germany for a home just north of the Mississippi River. Within a century of Lemp’s arrival, the power the family’s good name once held was siphoned, leaving behind an empty husk and a lingering sorrow that still radiates throughout St. Louis today.
Mysteries and secrets still shadow pieces of the Lemp family history like lost puzzle pieces, but what’s known is enough to piece together the downfall of the prosperous lineage. Upon the passing of the sole-surviving Lemp heir, all that remains are shades that lurk within the halls of the family’s former mansion. These voiceless specters carry the truth of the Lemp family curse but remain unable to tell their tragic tale.
Preserved and kept open today as a restaurant and private events venue, the Lemp Mansion still houses much of the family, their apparitions tied to all that remains of the once-esteemed footprint left on St. Louis.
How many ghosts are in the Lemp Mansion?
Many bearing the Lemp name have walked through the halls of the beautiful mansion, their eternal imprint left behind long after their passing. Count the number of ghosts you encounter during your St. Louis ghost tour.
Building the Lemp Family Legacy
If you think of all the big-named beers and breweries in the United States, names like Anheuser-Busch, Pabst Brewing Co., and Molson Coors likely come to mind. Rewind the clock over 180 years; there’d be another to add—Lemp Brewery. Established in 1840, this German-owned brewery made waves in St. Louis. Its proprietor, Johann Adam Lemp, had been a master of lagers even before launching what would be his legacy.
Adam Lemp arrived in the United States in 1836, stopping briefly in Cincinnati before making his home in St. Louis two years later. Though Lemp had abandoned much in Eschwege, Germany (including then-wife Justine Marie Charlotte Lemp), he brought his family’s knowledge of brewing lagers and years of training under German masters of their craft. Before he launched Lemps Brewery, though, Adam started smaller with a grocery store, from which he sold a homemade beer crafted from a family recipe.
Within two years, Adam knew where his focus needed to be, and after a small stint in a small brewery near the current site of the Gateway Arch, he opened a full-sized facility under the streets of St. Louis. Limestone caves coursing beneath the city proved the perfect location for Adam’s brew. If there’s any validity to the unique properties of limestone, those very caves may store generations of emotionally charged energy that now seeps into the family mansion.
Tragedy Strikes the Lemp Family
Before passing in 1862, Adam built a viable business for his son, William, and grandson, Charles Brauneck, to take over. However, for unknown reasons, Charles sold his share of the brewery for $12,000, a paltry figure considering how much William was worth at his death—five years after dissolving his stake in the brewery, Charles and his wife, Albertine, succumbed to complications from tuberculosis six months apart, near penniless.
It was the first recorded tragedy to strike the Lemp family, but William and his lineage still unknowingly had a spiral of darkness to face in the coming years. Most of it revolved around the mansion, a two-story structure built by William’s father-in-law, Jacob Feickert, in 1868. Located not far from the brewery, William took ownership in 1876 and immediately started converting it into a beautiful Victorian home for his family. Beneath the home, the Lemps bore a tunnel to lead right into the limestone caves housing the family brewery.
For years, William and his family, including his wife Julia, enjoyed the brewery’s success, especially as it went nationwide. Their good fortune would only last so long, though. In 1901, death came to the Lemp Mansion and took William and Julia’s 28-year-old son, Frederick. Frederick’s health problems went unnoticed for years, and he eventually suffered heart failure, forever altering the course of the Lemp legacy.
It was as if a curse had befallen the family, dragging it down from the high point that Adam Lemp had left it at nearly 40 years prior.
The Curse of the Lemps
The entire Lemp family felt Frederick’s death, but his father suffered most from it. Three years later, and a month after the death of friend and Pabst Brewing Company founder Johann Gottlieb Friedrich Pabst, William entered his bedroom in the mansion he had put so much time and effort into and shot himself.
Unbeknownst to the patriarch, he inadvertently pushed the brewing company toward its decline upon his death. His son, William “Billy” Lemp Jr., wasn’t as savvy a businessman and risked burning through his money. He and his wife, Lillian, “The Lavender Lady” (named for her love of the color), were spendthrifts, enjoying extravagances that threatened their finances. When Lillian filed for divorce, their proceedings became very public, causing a spectacle that St. Louis locals flocked to watch.
As Billy dealt with his divorce, mostly setting aside his responsibilities for the brewery and letting it fall into disrepair, a coalition of nine St. Louis breweries formed the Independent Breweries Company. After years of going uncontested, the Lemps finally had a worthy opponent, painting a grim future that grew more complicated when Prohibition and World War I began in the United States.
Amidst the turmoil with the brewery, Billy’s sister, Elsa, killed herself, allegedly in response to her own difficult marriage and divorce. Tormented with all of this death and the loss of the brewery fresh in mind, Billy saw only one way out. Just four days after Christmas 1922, he killed himself in the mansion’s office, where he once managed one of the most successful breweries in St. Louis.
Though William Sr.’s third son, Charles Lemp, left the brewery before it was sold off, he, too, would soon follow the pattern of the Lemps. In May 1949, he took his own life in the same manner as his grandfather.
Death had become the Lemp legacy.
The Ghosts of Lemp Mansion
Though the last surviving Lemp, Edwin, passed away peacefully at 90, the family had been marked by darkness for many years. The mansion may have become a boarding school and, later, a restaurant and inn, but it will always remain a Lemp property. Every knock and footstep is a reminder of who the mansion actually belongs to, regardless of who legally owns it.
The restaurant and inn draw in plenty of business as curious patrons seek to glimpse an apparition of the beer mogul patriarch or maybe hear a gentle song from the piano being seemingly played by no one. If they’re brave enough, perhaps they’ll stay in one of the guest rooms named after some of the family’s more tragic or dramatic members.
Could the limestone caves connected to the mansion be responsible for the rampant otherworldly activity? Or is it merely a curse set upon the Lemp family, refusing to let them rest in the peaceful beyond?
Haunted St. Louis
Get to know more about the Lemp family and the history of the mansion on our blog. Be sure to check our socials on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for even more St. Louis frights, and book your St. Louis ghost tour to experience some of the city’s most haunted locations in person!
Sources:
https://www.stlmag.com/history/profiles/unveiling-the-real-johann-adam-lemp/
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/mo-lempmansion/
https://www.stlmag.com/history/more-mysteries-uncovered-in-the-lemp-family-history/
https://www.stlmag.com/history/profiles/the-lemps-the-braunecks-and-the-secrets-of-lot-36/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-haunting-suicides-at-the-lemp-mansion
https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/missouri/articles/the-fascinating-history-of-the-haunted-lemp-mansion