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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
Historic Lemp Brewery
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
Lemp Brewery Grain Silos
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
Lemp Grain Silos
The old Lemp Brewery on South Broadway looms above the surrounding houses, offering a striking counterpoint to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, mere blocks away. Both breweries came to national prominence on the South Side of St. Louis in the late 19th century, but only Anheuser-Busch has survived. The Lemp Brewery, closed during the opening years of Prohibition, has quietly awaited redemption for almost a century.
The Lemp family’s eponymous brewery first operated on the riverfront, serving as an outgrowth of Adam Lemp’s dry-goods store. German lager beer, like the type Lemp brewed, required consistent, cold temperatures to ferment properly. The extensive system of caves in south St. Louis offered the savvy brewer the perfect solution to his problem. Lemp used the caves under Cherokee Street to lager his beer; eventually the whole brewing operation moved to Cherokee Street. The fabled brewery seen today began to rise like a castle above as the beer fermented beneath the ground.
William Lemp Sr. further developed the brewery, and the complex began to expand to take up several city blocks. Refrigerated railcars took Lemp beer around America, and then eventually the world. His son, William Lemp Jr., however, had the dubious distinction of presiding over the brewery’s collapse. When Prohibition hit, the brewery closed, only to be sold to International Shoe for pennies on the dollar; despondent, William shot himself in the family’s mansion.
Fast forward to 2014, and the Lemp Brewery’s redemption may in fact be arriving. Inspired by an arts festival in Buffalo, local artist/performer Blaire Hamilton set out to create a festival in St. Louis that melded historic architecture and the contemporary arts scene. Entitled City of Night, the three-day event will culminate with installation art and performances at the Lemp Brewery on Saturday, August 16th.
“The Lemp [Brewery] was actually the perfect place,” Hamilton says. “It’s beautiful, historic, and it means something to the city. Everyone knows where it is, everyone has this wonder about it.”
Working with Shashi Palamand, the current owner of the Lemp complex, artists will not just simply perform in the brewery’s buildings, but use the historic structures as departure points to respond and incorporate into their art. The iconic grain silos, which once held the ingredients for Lemp Beer, will instead be opened up as blank canvases where visitors can view the work of noted visual artists such as Bill Russell and David Burnett, as well as performing artists Celestial Theater. This might the first opportunity for the general public to see the interior of the silos.
Palamand is hoping that City of Night will show that the Lemp Brewery is not just sitting vacant and deteriorating. Despite rumors to the contrary, he and his father have invested a gargantuan sum of money into maintaining the property, which is an often hidden and difficult task. Several buildings house artists’ studios, as well as businesses such as the famous architectural salvage store, Junque. Light industrial companies occupy other buildings on the brewery grounds. “But we have a soft spot for our artists,” Palamand says.
Events such as City of Night provide a valuable boost to the self-esteem of a city often ridiculed for its large number of vacant industrial buildings. Instead of viewing empty buildings as failures, people are able to see them instead as exciting blank canvases, ready for creative reuse. The Lemp family will never brew beer in this complex again, but exciting things are happening within its walls this weekend thanks to the efforts of Hamilton and Palamand.
“As an artist in St. Louis, I want to bring attention to what is happening in St. Louis,” Hamilton says. “Not just to the city, not just to the state, but on a national level.”
City of Night starts tomorrow night and runs through Saturday, with multiple free arts events scheduled throughout the city. There will also be a post-festival picnic in Tower Grove Park on Sunday. Visit the festival’s Facebook page for all the details.
