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Stumpf, Consumers, IBC, Griesedieck Bros, Falstaff Plant no. 10. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Henry Griesedieck Home, 3250 Hawthorne, Compton Heights. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Anton Griesedieck Grave, Bellefontaine Cemetery. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Anton Griesedieck Grave, Bellefontaine Cemetery. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
It’s been 10 years since venerable Falstaff Beer has been available in stores. Once the third largest brewery in the United States, the Falstaff Brewing Corporation now exists only in memory. The brewery’s final plant in St. Louis, on Gravois, has been closed since 1977. But the story of how one family, the Griesediecks, took a failing brewery on Forest Park Avenue and turned an extinct label owned by the ill-fated Lemp family into a multi-million dollar company traded on the New York Stock Exchange still resonates. And in a time when corporate mergers have diminished the economic prestige of our region, the Falstaff story teaches valuable lessons to a new generation of St. Louisans.
Through interviews with remaining Griesedieck family members who worked for Falstaff in the mid-20th century and examination of corporate records in the Missouri Historical Museum collection, a fascinating portrait of one of St. Louis’s most important brewing families emerges. Consummate gentlemen, but also frank in their honesty, Monsignor Ed Griesedieck and Joseph “Joe” Griesedieck Jr., provide invaluable information and analysis of both the rise and collapse of their family’s most successful brewery. Monsignor Griesdieck is the grandson of the founder, Joseph “Papa Joe.” Joe Griesedieck is the Monsignor’s nephew, and the final Griesedieck president of Falstaff. The Falstaff Story, written by Papa Joe’s son Alvin Griesedieck in 1952, further gives the reader a window into the brewery’s humble beginnings and rise to prominence after World War II.
The Griesedieck family’s roots in the brewing industry stretch all the way back to the 18th century in Stromberg, Germany (interestingly, just a short drive from Adolphus Busch’s hometown). Anton Griesedieck arrived in St. Louis in 1866, and plunged into the local brewing industry. Never wedded to a particular location, unlike the Busches or Lemps, Anton and his sons worked for multiple breweries around the city. Coupled with a rapidly expanding population and cheap refrigeration in the cave systems below the South Side, there was ample room for many German-American families to make their fortunes.
Anton’s three sons followed their father to St. Louis. Among the breweries the family operated was the brewery on Gravois that would eventually become Falstaff Plant No. 10. Known by various names over the years, and owned by the Griesedieck family several different times over the years, the former Stumpf/Consumers/Griesedieck Bros./Falstaff Brewery still sits empty. As with many early breweries in St. Louis, the plant features an extensive cave system just below the surface. Interestingly, the memory of these caves rapidly disappeared after the introduction of artificial, steam-powered refrigeration in the late 19th Century. Joe Griesedieck, despite working at this location for many years, recalls only visiting the historic caves on one occasion; his uncle, Monsignor Griesedieck, was not aware of their existence. They were both surprised to hear that many urban explorers are now obsessed with exploring their family’s old property in search of these fabled caves, even to the point of hauling in a rubber raft in order to reach their more remote depths.
As the inexorable rise of Anheuser-Busch and Lemp continued at the end of the 19th Century, smaller breweries, backed by English capital, attempted two infamous mergers of smaller breweries in St. Louis: the Independent Breweries Company (IBC) and the St. Louis Brewing Association (SLBA). Anton Griesedieck served on the board of the SLBA in 1890; Henry Griesedieck Jr, served as the president of the IBC at its inception in 1907. However, as Alvin Griesedieck explains in The Falstaff Story, the family was never terribly impressed with the compensation or the work ethic of their fellow brewers, now lumped together in the two ill-fated consortia. Each brewery president in the consortia kept his previous salary, regardless of his competence. After several years of attempting to work within the constraints of a constellation of small, inefficient breweries, the family struck out on their own.
By the turn of the 20th Century, the Griesediecks could look back to a successful and profitable run in the brewing business. Henry Griesedieck owned a beautiful mansion at 3250 Hawthorne Avenue in the exclusive Compton Heights subdivision, counting among his neighbors some of the most prominent German-American businessmen in St. Louis. Anton bought a sizeable plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery, adorning the center with a grand monument featuring a portrait bust of himself. Despite legends of old St. Louis society rejecting the supposedly uncouth German beer brewing families of the South Side, neither Griesedieck interviewed recall any animosity from more established families. Monsignor Griesedieck credits his father Alvin and grandfather Papa Joe’s friendly and good-natured personalities; their ability to make friends assured their family a prominent place in the St. Louis business community.
And that ability for the Griesediecks to call on their charisma in challenging times became ever more critical in the dark days of Prohibition. Next week, the story of the Papa Joe Griesedieck’s survival through Prohibition will herald the rise of the Falstaff Brewing Corporation.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via e-mail at naffziger@gmail.com.
