| Lemp Mansion |
| Today the stately old Lemp Mansion is a restaurant and
inn. People come there for the food. They come to take part
in "murder weekends" and to spend a night in the luxury and splendor of
one of the elegant bedchambers. They come for the atmosphere. And they come for the ghosts. In 1980 Life Magazine called the Lemp Mansion one of the nine most haunted places in America. If it's not, it should be. Johann Adam Lemp arrived from Germany in 1838. With him he brought the secret of brewing lager beer and so the beer industry in America was born. He began modestly, with a small general store. By the time he died he'd given up general merchandise to brew beer and he left behind him a prosperous company. His son and heir turned that company into an empire. The 33-room mansion where William Lemp Sr. raised his family was equipped with the latest in modern conveniences, including steam heat, an open-air lift (elevator), and a free-standing, glass-enclosed shower that Lemp brought back from Italy. Priceless artwork filled the rooms. Here, America's first beer barons entertained the creme of St. Louis society. These walls saw lavish parties, light and color, Edwardian ladies and gentlemen dressed in all their finery. High-vaulted rooms rang with music and laughter. And gunshots. For, three men, a father and two sons, each in his own time, came to a moment of intimate despair from which he could find no return. The decline of the mighty Lemp brewing family began in 1901, when William Lemp Sr.'s youngest and favorite son, 28-year-old Frederick, died of heart failure. On New Year's Day, 1904, Lemp's closest friend, Frederick Pabst, also died. William, still in mouring for his son, entered into a depression from which he never emerged. On February 13th of that same year he ended his life, shooting himself in the head in the master bedroom. William Lemp Jr. inherited the company and he and his wife Lillian, known as the Lavender Lady because of her preference for clothes of that color, enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. Their happiness would not last. In 1908 Lillian filed for divorce. After a scandalous trial that lasted eleven days, she was granted her divorce and custody of their son, William Lemp III. Prohibition, in 1919, closed the doors of the Lemp family's brewery. In March, 1920, Elsa Lemp, William Lemp Sr.'s yougest child, died in her own home of what was reported as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Stories of her death are confused and it's possible that there was more to it than was admitted. Elsa had gone through a bitter divorce herself shortly before, but then had reconciled with her ex-husband. They remarried only a month before her death. In 1922 William Lemp Jr. in turn shot himself (some reports say he used his father's revolver). Charles Lemp, Lemp Sr.'s third son, lived in the mansion from 1929 until he, too, commited suicide in 1949. Charles had never married and his only close companion was his dog. He shot the dog before he shot himself, leaving the only suicide note anyone in the family is known to have written. It said simply, "in case I am found dead, blame it on no one but me". Adam Lemp, the last of the surviving Lemp brothers, died of natural causes in 1970, at the age of 90. Upon his death and according to his orders, most of the family's papers and heirlooms were destroyed. The mansion itself had left the family after Charles' death. For a time it served as a cheap boarding house. It fell into disrepair and was very nearly destroyed before being rescued and renovated. Today it is a restaurant and inn and people come there again. They come there for the food. They come to take part in "murder weekends" and to spend a night in the luxury and splendor of one of the elegant bedchambers. They come for the atmosphere. And they come for the ghosts. |
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