This lost architect of the Lemp Brewery designed some of its most iconic structures

The dawn of the 20th century often forebodes darker times in the histories of brewing in America. In 20 years, the banning of the production of alcoholic beverages by the adoption of the 18th Amendment would forever alter the face of St. Louis, and that of the Lemp family. Their huge brewery would close, and in many ways—though it would function as a shoe factory for much of the rest of the 1900s—the glory days of the Lemps’ enterprise, which had its roots in a small cave in the early 1840s, would end forever.

But the final two decades of the Lemp Brewery are not nearly as gloomy as portrayed in popular culture. While the family suffered through tragic suicides, the brewery was expanding rapidly throughout America, and constructing new, modern buildings that dwarfed the old 19th-century relics they replaced. I also will argue that despite common belief in St. Louis, William Lemp Jr. was not failing to modernize his plant to keep up with competitors, but rather invested close to $1 million in updating his family’s business for the new century in the decade before Prohibition.

More importantly to the historic of architecture in St. Louis and America, I have discovered that the Lemp Brewery employed its own architect, a man whose name has largely been lost to history: Guy Tyler Norton. For an architect who left his mark with some of the most iconic and beloved buildings in St. Louis, as well as smaller outposts in towns along rail lines that transported Lemp Beer across the United States, we know precious little about Norton. He lived at 2644 Nebraska Avenue, a solid but unassuming middle class house in the Fox Park neighborhood of the South Side. He joined the Engineers’ Club of St. Louis around 1920, but never joined the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. And we had his personal signature and stamp on original Lemp company blueprints, preserved in the offices of Shashi and Rao Palamand, the current owners of the brewery.

Even more frustratingly, for decades, his contributions to the Lemp Brewery were erroneously ascribed to the notable firm of Widmann, Walsh and Boisselier, who designed many of the most important buildings at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. While primary sources confirm they did design the Second Bottling Plant at the corner of Broadway and Cherokee in 1900, contemporary trade journals, city building permits and daily newspapers confirm Norton designed the major buildings the Lemp family hoped would propel their brewery to success through the 20th century. Many of these buildings’ exteriors and interiors were altered by International Shoe, so for the first time, readers in St. Louis will see rare photographs and descriptions of their original forms in the coming weeks. Norton’s designs were not confined to the brewery in St. Louis, however; he also designed what is probably dozens of branch offices, small bottling plants and other warehouses in cities and towns across America for the Lemps. For the first time in a century, I hope St. Louis will again understand how important Guy Tyler Norton was as an architect and engineer on a national level.  

Even more serendipitously, I had the great opportunity this week to interview the grandson of Guy, Doug Norton, who is still carrying on his grandfather’s creativity in the family business at Norton Company Designers at 2025 South Big Bend Boulevard in Maplewood. Doug provided important details and clues that help fill in our knowledge of his grandfather. It turns out that his family comes from a long line of civil engineers of Welsh and Scottish descent, and that his grandfather Guy, born on May 18, 1871, and a graduate of Washington University, also majored in both architecture and engineering. I was able to find an announcement of his senior thesis, which he wrote with another student, Ferdinand Finney Harrington, titled, “Punching as a Means of Testing Structural Steel.” He married Julia Vallat, who was born on December 24, 1869, and had one son, Cecil Vallat Norton, born on August 13, 1903, who is Doug’s father. Cecil’s wife and Doug’s mother was Adeline Essick Norton, but she took the name Ruth when she was older because she disliked her given name. Doug had a brother named David, who was 15 years his senior; the photo included in this article, Doug and his wife, Mary, believe, is most likely his brother and grandfather Guy. There is also a group photograph of Lemp employees and contractors standing in the completed New Fermenting Department; surely the architect is one of the men in the picture since he designed the building. It seems that he was able to retire when the Lemp Brewery closed at the onset of Prohibition, according to his obituary. He had moved to 4020 Russell Boulevard by the time of his death at 68 years old.

Sadly, Guy died in 1940, before Doug was born in 1945, so he has no memory of his grandfather, but family lore says that he enjoyed making radios and phonographs as a hobby—a fitting pastime for an engineer. His wife, Julia, also made doughnuts in the “old-school” way with a huge pot of oil on the stove. Doug’s father Cecil followed in the family business of engineering and architecture, designing Thompson Houses, which are Episcopalian retreats, as well as the rectory of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at Clifton and Murdoch avenues in St. Louis.

Growing weary of architecture and engineering, he departed those fields and founded the family business with his wife, Julia, that continues to this day, Norton Company Designers, which was based at 325 North Euclid Avenue in the Central West End. The eastern portion of the Straub’s on Maryland Plaza, originally built for Josephine Scullin, Inc. is one of Cecil’s designs.

Photography by Jason Gray

The Lemp Brewery's grain elevator, designed by Norton

I showed Jason Gray’s photographs of the Lemp Brewery buildings their ancestor had designed to the Norton family; Mary and Doug’s son, Ty, is continuing the family business, and he joined us while we looked at the towering buildings. While the brewery’s roots on Cherokee Street date back to the 1860s, Norton’s buildings are the largest and most prominent on the property today, including the power plant with its smokestack and the iconic grain elevator. I was surprised to learn the Nortons were not aware their ancestor had been employed as the company architect for the Lemp Brewery. As Doug summarized this revelation about his grandfather.

“Yet another feather in his cap.”