CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This thesis is centered around solving an issue that is present in all parts of the world: What should be done with an old, deteriorating building with historic relevance?

The Lemp Brewery in Saint Louis, Missouri is a prime example of a historically significant work of architecture that is unfortunately deteriorating due to the effects of time that would greatly benefit from rehabilitation efforts.  This thesis focuses more specifically on Building 20, referred to in this writing as the "Malt Kiln."  The Malt Kiln, located on the north side of the complex, is a mass-brick building that was constructed in two phases.  To better understand why this building is worthy of rehabilitation, it is important to consider the historic context of not only the site and buildings, but also the story of the family behind the Lemp name.

“I liken the Lemp saga to the story of the Titanic. It’s far enough to be history, but some of its survivors died just a few years ago.  It’s the same thing with the Lemps.  It’s far enough ago, but there are a lot of places they impacted that are still here.  People think that history is dry, but this shows otherwise.”

-Stephen Walker, Author, "Lemp: The Haunting History"

In 1836, Adam Lemp (Figure 1) sailed to America in search of a better life after continuously failing with business ventures in his home of Eschwege, Germany.  Despite many trials and tribulations, Adam was able to build an extremely successful brewery operation from almost nothing, and when he died in 1862, he was one of the leading businessmen in Saint Louis.  (Naffziger, C. 2020b).  When Adam died, William took over the Lemp Brewery and renamed it "William J. Lemp Brewing Co."  William committed suicide in 1904, and his son William Jr. took over the business and continued operations, with his success ending suddenly in 1920 at the start of Prohibition, only a short time after construction was completed on the most expensive building to date at the brewery complex.  The Lemp Brewery was the largest in Saint Louis Pre-Prohibition, even larger than Anheuser-Busch, but the operation seemingly crumbled overnight and was not able to survive Prohibition like Anheuser Busch (Historic Lemp Brewery, LLC. 2016). 

Figure 1 - A Portrait of Adam Lemp by Carl Wimer, Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum

In 1922, the International Shoe Co. (ISCO) bought the brewery complex at a public auction and proceeded to make many alterations to the complex to fit their needs for shoe manufacturing and distribution.  During their tenancy, attempts were made to rid the complex of the Lemp name, though it is suspected that after removing a few instances for very high price tags they gave up.  One of the most notable examples of this erasure is on the iconic smokestack which towers 300 feet into the Saint Louis skyline - originally white brick was inlayed into the smokestack to spell out "L-E-M-P", and ISCO paid an exorbitant amount of money to rearrange the bricks to spell "I-S-C-O" which still exists today (Figure 2).  Aside from this most well-known feat, ISCO removed the Lemp name from various decorative terra cotta ornaments throughout the complex (Figure 3) (St. Louis Paranormal Research Society. 2018).  Local historian and Lemp expert, Chris Naffziger, described in a personal interview  (Appendix A) that ISCO employees left their mark on the interiors of the complex with graffiti ranging from inscriptions like "Jeff was here, 1940" to unfortunate instances of racism and off-color remarks.  When ISCO started moving operations overseas, they had less of a need for the Lemp Brewery complex.  In the 1990's, ISCO started leasing space within the complex to various tenants.  At this time, the beginnings of decline were evident.  Chris Naffziger attributes this partially to the carelessness of ISCO in maintaining the buildings.

Figure 2 - The original smokestack with the erasure of the Lemp name, courtesy of Reddit.com, u/jb69029

Figure 3 - Erasure of the Lemp name at a terra cotta ornament detail. Courtesy of Saint Louis Paranormal Research Society.

Around the time when ISCO began leasing the Lemp Brewery to other tenants, a local author named Stephen Walker's interest in the Lemp family was piqued after a visit to the Lemp Mansion, now a bed and breakfast and wedding venue.  The Lemp Mansion is locally famous for being haunted by the ghosts of the Lemp family who all seemingly met tragic demises.  Initially, Stephen wanted to learn more about the Lemp ghosts which led him to the Central Library in Saint Louis.  He found that no books on the Lemp family were available and proceeded to seek out old newspaper articles and records.  He quickly realized that the Lemp ghosts were interesting, but the real people behind them were even more fascinating.  This led him to author his book, "Lemp: A Haunting History," which still draws crowds for book signings today (Naffziger, C. 2020a).  With a detailed history of the Lemp family now easily accessible to the public, phenomenon ensued.  Saint Louisans far and wide know the Lemp name.  Perhaps they were drawn in by the excitement offered by the supposed hauntings, or simply marveled at the brewery buildings.  Whatever the reason, most people who know the Lemp name can agree that their story is captivating and consider the family to be a pillar to the city of Saint Louis that we know today.

The Lemp family reached renown through the craft of brewing beer, which does not really make them any different than other major brewing dynasties.  What sets them apart are their innovations in the brewing industry, such as utilizing underground natural and man-made caves for the lagering process, being one of the first brewery operations to own and operate their own railroad, being the first beer to be distributed by airplane, and countless other technological modernizations.  Outside of the actual brewing process, the Lemp Brewery was intentionally designed to be a signal of the brewery's success and reputation.  The monumental brick buildings exhibited the Renaissance Revival "Rundbogenstil" (round-arch) style, and all spoke the same design language.  Typically, breweries with multiple buildings were hodgepodged together.  The unified design of the Lemp complex was a signal of power and has been described as "setting a new bar architecturally" as it seemed to be master-planned instead of planned on a building-to-building basis (Naffziger, C. 2018b). When their needs changed, or technology advanced, they quickly adapted to ensure they remained the best in the business.

Figure 4 - TOP: The Malt Kiln as originally built in 1873. BOTTOM: The Malt Kiln with the upper floors added in 1887.

The Lemp brewery complex was designated by the City of Saint Louis as a City Landmark in 1975.  It remains under private ownership and continues to be leased out to various tenants.  Not all spaces within the buildings, however, are safe enough for occupancy.  The Malt Kiln, for example, is a mass-brick building that is situated such that it received heightened exposure to the wind. When it was initially constructed in 1873, the Malt Kiln was three stories tall, but after construction was completed William Lemp determined it needed to be larger, so in 1887 he obtained a city building permit to build three more stories on top of the original building, all supported by the previously constructed brick-mass walls (Naffziger, C. 2018a).  Due to the combination of the previously mentioned issues with exposure to the elements and cycles of moisture freezing then thawing, the building began to deteriorate noticeably in the early 2000's.  The current owners speculate that ISCO did little to no maintenance to the complex in the almost 70 years they owned it, but they were and are still determined to preserve the historic brick buildings.  In 2005, Shashi and Rao Palamand made major structural improvements to the Malt Kiln including adding new concrete floors with steel structure to provide diaphragm stability to the previously hollow "silos" on either end of the building, performing extensive tuckpointing on the brick shell, and additional repairs totaling over $1 million dollars paid out of their own pockets.  The Palamands continued to perform annual maintenance on the building as a viable use for the Malt Kiln was waiting to show itself (City of St. Louis, Missouri. 2023).

In late-Summer 2020, two windstorms directly hit the complex, with the most major impacts being to the Malt Kiln. After the first storm, major roof damage was noted throughout the complex.  After the second in early August, bricks began to peel off the façade.  The Palamands began the process of coordinating repairs and intervention and hired a company to perform the work.  The start of construction was delayed due to various impacts of Covid-19.  Unfortunately, prior to the start of the work, the western end of the Malt Kiln collapsed. Emergency demolition was performed to get the remaining building to a more stable state, along with repairs to the neighboring building.  Once enough debris was cleared and the building was in a more stable condition, work was stopped for the winter season.  About a year later, the process of strengthening the east end of the building was started, including installing anchor bolts in the remaining brick and retrofitting and strengthening the floors.  In early 2023, upon rapid thawing of water that infiltrated the brick immediately prior to a deep freeze, bricks began to fall from the east end of the Malt Kiln, and the walls began to bow. More repairs were attempted but more weather events continued to cause more decline.  Eventually, no contractors would agree to attempt to repair the building. It was determined that removing the upper floor addition on both the east and west sides would relieve the building of nearly 70% of its weight and would make it easier and safer to perform further repairs.  In the Preservation Board hearing on July 24, 2023, the Palamands detailed the previously mentioned interventions, and proposed their plan to deconstruct the upper floors in a safe and conservative manner, preserving as many historic bricks as possible.  After several months of back-and-forth with the Preservation Board prior to this hearing, unanimous approval of the demolition permit was finally granted (Appendix B).  As of the time this thesis was written, the deconstruction work is underway.

Miraculously, there were no injuries in any of the major deterioration events related to the Malt Kiln, but what remains of the building is an eye-sore to the bustling Cherokee-Lemp Historic District. Neighborhood residents have expressed deep sadness at seeing what was once a beautiful historic building be reduced to ruins, the same feeling expressed by all residents of the region that have been exposed to the development of this thesis.  The general public continue to express their hopes for the building, and in personal conversation as well as public forum discourse, people have many great ideas for the Malt Kiln.  Prior to gathering public opinions, the intent of this project was already set.  The opinions expressed in the following conversations further support the success of this thesis and prove that a project such as this would be well-received and highly regarded by not only the immediate neighborhood, but the general regional population.

Figure 5 - Selected discourse from Reddit.com

Figure 6 - Selected discourse from Reddit.com

The Lemp Brewery was once a popular site for illegal urban exploring due to the unique features inside.  Beyond the previously discussed goals of the project, this thesis attempts to give the public access to features such as the basement cellars once used for lagering beer, create a safe and accessible way for visitors to experience the famed Lemp cave, and to further share the original vision of “modernity” from Adam Lemp’s point of view with the world. 

Projects similar to this have been successfully completed before, such as the adaptive reuse project at Civic Centre Lleialtat Santsenca in Barcelona where a deteriorating brick building was given new life, or Shoreham Street in Sheffield, UK where a building addition was built above an existing historic brick building.  By examining these projects and others like them and applying their design and construction methods to the Malt Kiln, an important piece of history can be preserved while giving it modern amenities.  The new Malt Kiln will not only satisfy the region's curiosities about the Lemp Brewery Complex - it will serve a purpose in bettering the surrounding neighborhoods and the broader region.  The site is situated on the edge of a food desert and is directly bordering areas of vastly different qualities of life.