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Photograph by Jason Gray
The basement lagering celar under the old brew house, looking south.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Another western view of the lagering cellar under the old brew house.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
The basement lagering cellar under the old brew house, looking southeast.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
The basement lagering cellar under the old brew house, looking west.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Another view of the lagering cellar under the old brew house, looking southeast.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
The basement lagering cellar under the brew house, looking north.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Basement of the old stock house, looking north.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
First floor of the stock house, looking north.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
First floor of the stock house, looking south.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, east antechamber looking east.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, west lagering cellar, looking south.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, east lagering cellar, looking south.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, north wall of easst side antechamber, looking upward; notice the switch from rubble to brick.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, north wall of east side of antechamber.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, west lagering cellar looking south.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, west lagering cellar, looking south.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, looking southeast from the east passageway to the lower level of the old brew house lagering cellar.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, looking west from east antechamber.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Subbasement, west antechamber, looking west.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Jeff Siddons and Stuart Keating at the back door of the stock house.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Earthbound's new bottling line.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
Earthbound's new fermentation tanks.
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Photograph by Jason Gray
The author at Earthbound Brewery's new building.
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Souvenir card of the beer cellars at the Lemp Brewery.
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Advertisement for the Cherokee Brewing Company, which shows the stockhouse between the brewhouse and tavern/office building.
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Legend describing Cherokee Brewery, circa 1878.
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Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
1896 Whipple Map featuring Cherokee Brewery.
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Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
1896 Whipple Map, detail.
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Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
Cherokee Brewery Ground Plan and Isometric Projection, 1876.
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Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
Cherokee Brewery Isometric Projection, 1876.
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Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
Cherokee Brewery Ground Plan, 1876.
Exciting discoveries have occurred since I first explored the old lagering cellars underneath Earthbound Brewery’s new location in the old Cherokee Brewery in South St. Louis. Over the last several months, Stuart Keating, Jeff Siddons, and Rebecca Schranz have been busy clearing out rubble, removing old (but extremely heavy) drop ceilings, and supervising workers, all the while producing a regular selection of beers at their current location halfway down the block on Cherokee Street. Ahead of schedule and below budget, the renovation of the old stock house into their new brewery is proceeding smoothly.
Keating took time out of his hectic schedule to give me and photographer Jason Gray another tour of the old Cherokee Brewery’s towering stock house and the subterranean passageways underneath. Unlike last time, a considerable amount of water has been pumped out of the subbasement, and much sturdier ladders and lights have been installed, easing the exploration of the old cellars. Instead of paddling or trying keep a camera stable while taking a long exposure in pitch darkness, Gray was able to take captivating photographs of the subbasement, perhaps for the first time in 100 years—if ever. Analysis of his photos back on the surface revealed fascinating evidence of their construction and former life storing huge barrels of fermenting beer. Additionally, analysis of previously unmentioned Fire Insurance maps shed light on the original use and configuration of the brewery complex.
But let’s first start on the surface, where the old grocery store that occupied the first floor of the old stock house has been gutted. (Waberi has moved across the street to a new location.) A giant, plaster drop ceiling obscured the beauty and vastness of the first floor, and after its removal, one can begin to imagine the space being turned into Earthbound’s new brewpub. Of interest to the construction of the building, I realized that there are two rows of cast iron pillars in the space, though they do not sit equidistant from each other, but rather with the first row going down the middle of the space and the second row cutting through half of the space on the east. More on that later, downstairs.
Also, we have long known the old brew house sat directly to the east; demolition of the grocery store revealed several windows and a doorway on the old common wall of the stock and brew houses. I strongly suspect, after analyzing the brick work and construction, that the original wall of the brew house survives in the eastern wall of the stock house. Also, the front door is not original to the stock house; I believe the stock house was built later than the now-demolished brew house and corner saloon. The windows most likely survive from when the brew house faced a vacant lot to the west, later filled in by the stock house.
Moving down into the basement, where Earthbound has immediate plans for fermentation tanks and other production uses, a good amount of rubble has been removed, exposing the vastness of the space. This room perhaps has changed the least since the last time we visited, though the exposure of the original floor reveals a substantial pitch to it, allowing for the drainage of water to one corner of the basement. To the east, into the groin-vaulted passageways of the lagering cellars under the old brew house, excavation of the hard-packed clay has opened up the space considerably. The clay has proven more tenacious than planned, so the original floor of the cellar has not been revealed yet.
But the real excitement came when we proceeded deep down into the lowest level, the subbasement, where the two long barrel vaults, now drained of most of their water, beckoned. Unlike last time, I was able to analyze the construction of the vaults and the two “antechambers” on the north side that lead to them. Both cellars proceed all the way to the property line on the south. In the western chamber, the low water levels revealed the remains of a giant lagering barrel, now in pieces. While common belief holds that brewers hauled barrels of beer in and out of lagering cellars, photographs of the Lemp lagering cellars reveal that the barrels actually sat on end, and beer was pumped by pipes in and out of the huge vessels. In the eastern barrel vaulted lagering cellar, Keating and crew discovered that there is a shaft leading up to the surface, opening up in the back of the stock house (a ladder shows its location above a pile of rubble in the photograph accompanying this article). Not surprisingly, these shafts were later used by demolition crews for the disposal of rubble, now resting in the cellars. Both cellars possess these shafts, most likely originally used for the depositing of ice from the river, or to provide ventilation (Louis Lemp actually wrote about the dangers of carbon dioxide collecting in deep lagering cellars). Also, a row of cast iron columns punctuates the eastern barrel vault, no doubt a later addition as more floors were added to the stock house above. Having analyzed the brick work of the rectangular shaft leading from the basement to the subbasement, there is no evidence of a staircase. I strongly suspect that somewhere under the old brew house there is a staircase buried in the clay in-fill, waiting to be discovered in the future.
The low water also allowed for the discovery of an exposed ledge of bedrock in the western antechamber. Speleologists such as Joe Light have long suspected that the cellars used a preexisting hole, such as a sinkhole or quarry, to get a head start on construction. That certainly would make sense in line with other more prominent lagering cellars. Both the Anheuser-Busch and Lemp lagering cellars are well-documented as utilizing pre-existing caves that were modified by their rapidly growing operations. If even huge, capital-rich breweries “cheated,” why would a much smaller Cherokee Brewery start from scratch? Likewise, why would the Lemp and Cherokee breweries choose to locate so far from major population centers if not to save money by using isolated caves and old quarries? The Cherokee Brewery was outside of the city limits when it was first founded, so the most logical reason was the choice to use the old limestone quarry or sinkhole for a head start. The Compton and Dry view from 1875 shows brickmaking and quarrying operations throughout the neighborhood. As George Gaylord Simpson documented in the 20th Century, many of the original caves and sinkholes of the karst topography common in South St. Louis were later filled in with clay thousands of years ago. Perhaps the clay was quarried first, and then the limestone.
But perhaps the most exciting discovery was related to us by Keating, who had earlier climbed up a large, slimy hill of clay clogging a passageway that heads off to the east from the barrel vaulted antechambers. After making it through a narrow passageway above the clay mound, he discovered another groin vaulted chamber directly below the similar chamber under the old brew house. This revelation has confirmed the accuracy of the 1887 The Industries of St. Louis account of three lagering cellars, located 45 feet below the surface. Also, in comparison to other lagering cellars, there is precedent in the Lemp Brewery, which also has two floors of groin vaulted chambers under its old brew house. Likewise, the two barrel vaulted chambers to the east share their forms with the Anheuser-Busch Brewery’s old cellars. Consequently, the Cherokee Brewery’s cellars fit in nicely with other conventions for these facilities built before and after the Civil War.
A clearer picture of the construction of the Cherokee Brewery begins to develop with these new discoveries. I believe at the bare minimum, the cellars under the old brew house are the oldest, dating to the 1860s. As is often common (take Falstaff Plant No. 1), the oldest buildings are often demolished first, leaving more modern buildings behind. While the brew house was later modified, by the early 20th Century it was probably viewed as obsolete, and so was demolished. The now-demolished corner saloon was probably built next, with the two barrel vaulted cellars being constructed at or before this time. Then, by 1875, the first floor of the stock house was constructed, necessitating the covering of the brew house’s western windows, and by the 1890s, the upper floors had been constructed, necessitating the modifications of the foundations I mentioned in the previous article. One of the most interesting discoveries in the subbasement was the irregular stone north wall switching over to brick. Perhaps that wall was modified later as the stock house was constructed and renovated. By the 1890s, when the Whipple Fire Insurance map was published, there were at least eleven buildings in the Cherokee Brewery campus, as evidenced by a surviving “Building K,” later renovated as Kroger that was robbed by none other than James Earl Ray.
When construction is completed, I’ll be back to see how it turns out. The new Earthbound is a worthy successor the history-rich Cherokee Brewery, and easily ranks as one of the most exciting historic renovations in St. Louis.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via email at naffziger@gmail.com.
