Courtesy of Stephen Walker
Wm. Lemp's Beer Saloon, Lemp Souvenir Book, 1893.
It’s hard to imagine now, but within a Cardinals pitcher’s throw from the front steps of the Old Cathedral lies the birthplace of lager beer in St. Louis, perhaps America.1 Adam Lemp’s brewery sat on the east side of South Second Street, in between Elm and Walnut. All those myriad buildings, including the two small structures that made up Adam’s brewing redemption, are gone now, demolished for the construction of the Gateway Arch grounds. One can only imagine the bustling, rapidly growing city that surrounded the Lemp Brewery, as stevedores hauled furs down the street to nearby warehouses, or pioneers bought supplies from Henry Shaw. Adam probably passed Dred and Harriett Scott as they walked to work at the nearby Barnum Hotel.
Adam’s first couple of years in St. Louis, when he was listed at 6th and Morgan operating a “family grocery”2 probably served to generate the much-needed capital the failed German brewer needed to start a new brewery in the Gateway City. As has been shown in last week’s article, Adam’s brewing at the grocery store was not an incidental part of his business, as has long been suggested. Around 1840 or 1841, he purchased a house at 37 S. Second Street (after 1867, 110-112 S. Second Street3) from James Clemens, whose famous country home on Cass Avenue is well known to St. Louis historians.4 Lemp’s business on S. Second Street first appears in the St. Louis Directory in the 1842 edition as “brewery and vinegar makers.”5
Courtesy of National Park Service, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
South Second Street.
Rumored to have been built in 1816,6 or before 1839,7Adam’s new business address surely was built as a residence, perhaps by Clemens. As viewed in an 1893 Lemp souvenir book and a National Park Service photograph in the 1930s before its demolition (above), the building at 37 S. Second clearly possesses the proportions and fenestration of a private home. The house was five bays wide, with a door in the middle bay (the front staircase is missing in the 1930s photograph). The house was rumored to have received a new front in the 1850s,8 and this seems perfectly credible, as the window treatments on the side walls, visible in both aforementioned images, show Greek Revival pedimented lintels. As can be seen in the Union Trust Building, façade renovations in St. Louis frequently leave side elevations untouched.
Home of William Russell, 917 Russell, built in 1842.
Projecting those Greek Revival windows to the front, and one sees a common house form for the upper class in St. Louis, befitting someone of James Clemens’s stature (for comparison, see the William Russell House, above, from the same epoch).9 The incongruous, slightly projecting sixth bay, on the north (or left) was clearly added by Adam to allow an exterior staircase to his second-floor apartment, where the brewer lived,10 surely to prevent drunken patrons from accidentally wandering up an interior staircase from the new saloon on the first floor and cellar. Also, there would have been a flurry of construction in the Levee neighborhood at that time, as St. Louis had just suffered the disastrous urban fire of 1849, which just barely spared Adam’s property from destruction.11 Perhaps the Greek Revival front looked dated at that point or was even slightly damaged by the fire, and the brewer thought this the perfect time replace the façade with a “Palazzo Style”12 front, reflecting changing tastes of the 1850s. It certainly shows that he possessed the confidence to invest in capital improvements, which also now included a brew and malt house in the backyard of the former house-turned-saloon. The names of several employees of Adam are also known from around this time,13 and his son, William Jacob Lemp had arrived by 1848.14
The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following people and organizations: Stephen Walker; Jaime Bourassa, Dennis Northcott, and others at the Missouri History Museum and Archives; and Jennifer Clark and Bob Moore at the National Park Service, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via email at naffziger@gmail.com.
[1] Kargau, Ernst. St. Louis in früheren Jahre: Ein Gedenkbuch für Deutschthum. St. Louis: August Wiebusch & Sohn Printing Co., 1893, p. 352.
[2] 1840-1 St. Louis City Directory, p. 35.
[3] 1867 Edwards’ St. Louis Directory. First year city directories reflect the renumbering St. Louis streets.
[4] Adam Lemp Will (6229), Section III, 1, February 12, 1862. Described within as “Block no. 35 of the City of St. Louis containing frontage of 87 feet 3 in. along 2nd Street acquired by me from James Clemons Books Nr. 3 page 169 and Nr. 4 page 382.”
[5] 1842 St. Louis City Directory, p. 81. The directory lists the address as “32,” but that seems to be a mistake, one that is common in these yearly directories.
[6] “Old Brewery Effaced,” Tyrone Daily Herald, Nov 14, 1929. Also of note, the article lists a founding date of the brewery as 1841, and gives Lemp the distinction of founding the first lager brewery in the city.
[7] Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Archival Record for 112-114 S. Second Street, May 26, 1929.
[8] Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Archival Record for 112-114 S. Second Street, May 26, 1929.
[9] The 1838-9 St. Louis Directory, p. 9. The directory lists Clemens’s address at 14 N. First Street, directly behind the house on S. Second Street. His business is listed as “dealer in staple and fancy dry goods.” It seems most likely, due to its proximity to his published address, that Clemens lived at 37 S. Second, or at least owned it as an investment property.
[10] The following city directories list just Adam Lemp’s address as 37 S. Second Street: 1845 Green’s Directory, as “Lemp A & co, brewers and vinegar makers, es Second s of Walnut, Lemp A, (L. & co.) es Second s of Walnut”; 1848 Directory, as “Lemp & Co., Western Brewery, 37 S Second, Lemp Adam, (L & Co.) cor Elm and Second”; 1852 Morrison’s Directory, as “Lemp Adam, brewery, 37 Second, bn Walnut and Elm”; 1853-54 Montague St. Louis Business Directory, as “Lemps, A., beer house, es s Second, bn Walnut and Elm.”
[11] Hutawa, Julius. Map of St. Louis Great Fire.
[12] The author wishes to thank Michael R. Allen of the Preservation Research Office for aiding in the identification of the architectural style of the building’s façade.
[13] Streiblein vs. Adam Lemp, December 14, 1848. Copy of lawsuit provided to the author by Stephen Walker.
[14] William Lemp’s naturalizations papers.
