CHAPTER 2, PART 1B: LITERATURE REVIEW (the LEMP stuff)

(*An attempt was made to create an overlay of the current site conditions and the Lemp/Cherokee Caves extents, based on historic and current accounts of the cave and a map from "Lost Caves of St. Louis". I can't promise it is 100% accurate, but it's likely very close.)

LEMP BREWERY HISTORY

The Lemp Brewery complex is located within the Benton Park National Historic District and the Cherokee-Lemp Local Historic District, and is a designated St. Louis City Landmark. It was first and foremost the site of the William J. Lemp Brewing Company (1864-1922) but was later the site of the International Shoe Company (1922-1992).  The complex facilitated Saint Louis’ emergence as a powerhouse in both brewing beer and shoe manufacturing in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Development of the site began in 1864 after William Lemp acquired the land in order to expand the brewing company his father, Adam Lemp, had started.  Adam Lemp was the first in the US to brew lager-style beer, and is considered the father of modern brewing in the area.

This site was perfect for a brewery because of its underground limestone caves and its close proximity to the Mississippi River.  The river provided ice for the brewery in the winter months, and the caves were the perfect environment for the lagering process. At one point, the Lemp Brewing Company was larger than Anheuser-Busch.

The Lemps had many firsts in the world of beer.  They owned their own refrigerated railroad, and were the first to have coast-to-coast distribution of beer.  By the 1890’s Lemp’s beer was being distributed globally, and in 1912 it was the first beer to be delivered by airplane.

The family designed their buildings to symbolize the wealth and power they had accumulated. But once prohibition began, they quickly fell from their great successes. With the fear of uncertainty, the family sold the complex to ISCO in 1922 in a public auction, and subsequently sold their Falstaff trademark to another brewer who used it to establish the Falstaff Brewing Company after prohibition was repealed.

The ISCO flourished in the complex, using every square inch for manufacturing, packing, storing, and distributing shoes to over ninety other shoe facilities across the country. They went on to become the nation’s largest shoe manufacturer for a time, and by 1962 they were the US’s largest industrial employer.  In the 1960s/1970s, ISCO started to outsource much of its shoe production overseas, and took on other ventures state-side, but operations at the Lemp complex began to dwindle.  In the 1990s, ISCO began to lease parts of the complex to other businesses, which is how it is currently used today.

LOST CAVES OF SAINT LOUIS

Adam Lemp found success as a brewer in Saint Louis in the mid-1800s.  At his first brewery location, he constructed underground vaults beneath his beer hall in order to have a cool environment to lager his beer.  Soon, his beer became so popular that he had to search for a larger location.  He discovered a cave along what is now South Broadway and purchased the property and readied it for his beer-making (Figure 8).  This cave had three compartments, each containing several large casks capable of holding 20-30 barrels of beer.  The cave was a result of natural underground river channels, and simply needed to be cleared out in order to be used.  Masonry walls were constructed within the limestone walls of the cave to create three separate compartments.  By 1979, the brewery’s production had grown to 88,000 barrels, likely due to the immense storage capacity of the cave.  When artificial refrigeration came about, the cave no longer played such a big role in the brewery’s success with their products, but it presented unique opportunities for the Lemps.  Pipelines were installed running from the Brewery to the Lemp Mansion running through the cave that supplied the Lemp family with hot and cold water at their home, and of course additional piping would also supply the house with beer from the brewery.  Now that the cave was mostly emptied of any brewery-related equipment or structures, the Lemps turned it into an entertainment destination.  They constructed a theater room complete with audience seating and a stage with scenery props, and even utilized a room in the cave as a swimming pool.   The Lemps frequently hosted parties in these and other areas of the cave.  Local legend says that the cave even provided the Lemp family direct access from their home to the brewery, though today no such passage remains.

There are (were) many caves like this one under the city of Saint Louis that were used for brewery purposes decades ago.  Unfortunately, many have been filled with rubble and debris from demolition of old and failing buildings above, and also to provide stable foundations for a growing city’s new highways – such was the fate of part of Lemp’s cave.  The caves that are still accessible today have previously been so heavily amended to accommodate the needs of past breweries that they appear to be man-made.  The one cave that is easily accessible to the public still today is underneath Earthbound Brewery.  In the book “Lost Caves of Saint Louis,” the authors spent years in the mid-1900s exploring many of these local caves and were able to document in great written and photographic detail these great formations that we can no longer see today.

THE CAVE TODAY

Today, the only way to access the Lemp Cave is from the cellars under the Malt Kiln. The current property owners restrict access to the caves due to safety concerns, but from time to time they allow guests to visit with supervision.  Many of the structures in the cave built by the Lemps have deteriorated and become nearly unrecognizable, and many former passageways have been filled in with rubble.  There are some pathways that have been maintained and improved by the Palamands for safe inspection by staff.  The Lemps had electricity running throughout the cave, but today the only source of light is what visitors bring with them.

Still shots from GrimmLifeCollective's YouTube video of their cave exploration, linked below:

Selected clips from Craig Williams' documentation of the caves (linked below)

Author's note:

A handful of people have been lucky enough to have the privilege of touring the Lemp and Cherokee caves. Thanks to the internet and social media websites I was able to find a wide array of information and first-hand accounts. If you'd like to learn more about these caves, I recommend you check out the following:

Lost Caves of St. Louis - Charlotte & Hubert Rother (book, available for purchase online)

Lemp: The Haunting History - Stephen P. Walker (book, available for purchase online and at the Lemp Mansion gift shop)

This article in St. Louis Magazine by Chris Naffziger (really all of his Lemp articles are fascinating!): https://www.stlmag.com/history/what-was-lemps-cave-really-like/

This piece by Craig Williams in The Brewery History Society's Journal: http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/155/WilliamsC.pdf

This video from YouTuber GrimmLifeCollective detailing their guided exploration of the subterranean levels of the Lemp Brewery: https://youtu.be/AqxYfqLTG6g?si=Bjsa6JLu0hYXnceD

An un-cropped version of the site plan for context