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View of St. Louis. Steel engraving by Emile B. Krausse after Hofmann, 1854. Photo courtesy of the Missouri History Museum Photographs and Prints Collection. St. Louis Lithographs and Engravings. N22070.
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Detail of Leopold Gast and Brother 1855, Courtesy of St. Louis Public Library.
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Detail of 1874 Whipple Fire Insurance Map, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum.
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Detail of 1892 Whipple Fire Insurance Map, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum.
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Aerial view of St. Louis Riverfront before clearance. Photograph, 1932. McCrea Collection. Missouri Historical Society Photographs and Prints Collections. NS 22145. Scan © 2006, Missouri Historical Society.
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Detail of A. Whipple & Co.'s insurance map of St. Louis, Mo. surveyed & drawn by C.T. Aubin. 1870.
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Detail of Palmatary Map, 1858, N21350, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum.
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Detail of Plate 5 of Compton and Dry, Pictorial St. Louis, Library of Congress.
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Lemp Advertisement in The St. Louis Star and Times, Monday, October 6, 1913.
Sadly, the brewery that Adam Lemp built behind his saloon and residence was destroyed by fire in 1929, before an existing photograph could be taken of it.1 The 1854 View of St. Louis shows the former Clemens house facing S. 2nd Street, while in the rear, clearly labeled “Lemp’s Brewery” was the four-story, hip roofed, eight-bays-long and three-bays-wide brew and malt house. To create a carriageway around the front house to the brewery in the back, Adam bought a six-foot strip of land from the street to the back-property line from his southern neighbor, Edward Mulliken.2 1854 was also the year by which the name Western Brewery began to appear in city directories.3 If we are to believe his grandson, Edwin Lemp, the giant kettle the latter donated to the Missouri History Museum was being used to brew the first batches of lager beer.4
Interestingly, the 1858 Palmatary View of St. Louis shows a slightly smaller brewery, this time showing a three-story building with a pyramid roof, with fenestration of only five bays. This dramatic change in the size of the brew house surely reflects the disastrous fire that destroyed the roof (and probably the fourth floor) in that year. Also, the valuation of $40,000 for the brewery in 1850 and its subsequent drop to $30,000 in 1860 surely reflects the expenses incurred from the fire and the brew house’s rebuilding.5 By 1862, the brewery possessed “four horses, three beer wagons, one small wagon and harnesses” for deliveries of supplies and beer.6
Also see: Unveiling the real Johann Adam Lemp
Then there is the Lemp Brewery’s own advertising, which shows a group of buildings made of stone.7 In the foreground is a two-story building with rounded arch windows and a hipped roof and one story shed addition. In the background, there is another seemingly stone rubble wall building, as well as a small “office” building. Simply put, there is absolutely no evidence that the brewery on S. Second Street ever appeared in that configuration, despite what the Lemp advertisement claims. In reality, as will be shown next week when Lemp’s Cave is addressed, the buildings labeled as the “original Lemp brewery” actually were clustered around the intersection of Cherokee and Lux Streets. Likewise, fire insurance maps from 1870, 1874, 1876, 1892 and 1896 clearly depict that both buildings as red, denoting brick, not blue or gray for stone.8 The brewery buildings were valued at $8,000 in 1860, clearly not considering the value of the brewing business inside the two structures.9
Regardless, one aspect of Adam’s new business that we can know for certain was that it was thriving. Sited near major hotels and institutions such as the Old Cathedral, and just two blocks from the Levee proper, Adam’s “Beer saloon” was selling his new lager beer in large quantities, even if the new style of beer had not completely taken over the beer market.10 By 1857, it was the largest saloon in the city.11 A later publication describes the raucous tavern thus:
In 1857, Lemp’s saloon is mentioned as ‘one of the largest of the class,’ where around a number of tables excited coteries were assembled, ‘quaffing incredible quantities of beer and uttering almost impossible successions of vocal sounds, and boys rushing enthusiastically from the bar to the tables with more glasses of beer than it would seem within the power of two human hands to carry.12
The National Park Service, which documented every building on the Levee before, also includes this description of Adam’s business on S. Second Street:
Building has a fancy basement finished with stone groin vault ceiling construction and probably was used as a rathskeller to entertain the Lemp customers. (Mr. Bryan says in the early fifties complaints were made from neighbors because of the noise emanating from parties held there.)13
Also See: Adam Lemp's riverfront brewery was the birthplace of lager beer in St. Louis—and perhaps America
If the description is accurate, it seems that Adam was recreating a traditional German city hall cellar, similar to the one he had mismanaged back in Eschwege. A Missouri Republican newspaper article from 1860 reported the brewery’s output as “4,800 barrels of lager beer, 3,500 barrels of ‘common’ beer, no ale.”14 Court files even give us the name of one employee, Jonathan Prill, a bartender in the saloon.15 An inventory of the saloon and brew house completed after his death in 1862 shows a well-stocked and furnished brewery and drinking establishment:
1 Mashtub (old) $1; 1 steeping tub $20; 4 fermenting tubs (old) $25 total; 4 fermenting tubs in good order $35; 145 ¼ barrels $145; 150 old ditto $37.50; 7 17-barrel casks $70 total; 2 watertubs at 25 each for $50; 14 skids in the cellar under the house $5; 3 beerwagons $150; 1 small wagon $10; 4 horses $600; 16 rounds tables $32; 89 armchairs $89; 99 tumblers $12; 5 boxes of cigars $18.16
Also, in 1857, William Lemp’s name begins to appear in St. Louis city directories, probably reflecting that he was now taking a more active role in the family business.17 Despite his father having abandoned his mother in Germany to escape debts (for which she was probably held liable), William seems not to have wanted to pass up the opportunity to become involved in a thriving, expanding business.18 The author doubts the father and son were close, however. When the 1863 city directory came out, William Lemp’s name was appearing alongside the Western Brewery.19
The 1875 Compton and Dry Pictorial St. Louis clearly labels the old house as a branch and saloon of the brewery.20 The Lemps eventually divested themselves of the old buildings on S. Second Street, no later than 1889, when their neighbors to the north, the Kauffmans, pulled a permit to build a $750 one-story annex in the yard of the former brewery.21 That one-story building, along with the front building, are still visible in a 1932 aerial photograph.22 The Kauffman family was in the vinegar business, among other pursuits, according to a biography written at the time:
Francis A. Kauffman, offices at 106-110 S. 2nd Street, neighbor of Lemp Saloon. Owned vinegar company. F. A. Kauffmann Manufacturing Company, president.23
Considering the Lemp buildings were used for similar purposes, it is certainly logical that the Kauffmans could use them. Their activity also disproves suggestions that the Lemps owned the property into the 20th Century. When the property was finally purchased by the federal government around 1939, it was still owned by his heirs, Erwin and Edna Kauffman.24 Today, there is no trace of the historic brewery in the broad swath of grass to the south of the Old Cathedral.
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] “Old Brewery Effaced,” Tyrone Daily Herald, Nov 14, 1929
[2] Real estate inventory in Adam Lemp probate file (6229), March 22, 1865, pg. 1.
[3] 1854-55 Directory, as “Lemp Adam, Western Brewery, 37 s. 2d.”
[4] Kargau, Ernst. St. Louis in Früheren Jahre. St. Louis: August Wiebusch und Sohn, 1893. p. 19.
[5] Lindhurst, M.A. Thesis, p. 73. Cites St. Louis Evening News and Intelligencer, Oct. 23, 1858; Cites 1850 United States, Census of Industry, p.249. 1860 U.S. Census of Industry Missouri.
[6] Adam Lemp Will (6229), Section III, 1, February 12, 1862.
[7] Lemp Brewery Advertisement, The St. Louis Star and Times, Monday, October 6, 1913.
[8] A. Whipple & Co.'s insurance map of St. Louis, Mo. surveyed & drawn by C.T. Aubin. 1870; Whipple Fire Insurance Maps, 1874; Whipple Fire Insurance Maps, 1876; Whipple Fire Insurance Maps, 1892; Whipple Fire Insurance Maps, 1897.
[9] Inventory of assets and debts in Adam Lemp probate file (6229), Sept 2, 1862. “$8,000 for 2nd street from Clemons improvements: a large 2 story brick house and ‘large’ brewery in rear of house October 1, 1844 or 0? Book 4 pg 382-3.”
[10] Lindhurst, M.A. Thesis, p. 37.
[11] Lindhurst, M.A. Thesis, p. 74. Cites Daily Missouri Republican, June 21, 1857.
[12] Schard, John Thomas, “Trade, Commerce and Manufacturers,” History of Saint Louis City and County: From the Earliest Periods to the Present Day: Including Biographical Sketches of Representative Men, Vol. 2 (St. Louis: L.H. Everts, 1883) p. 1331.
[13] Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Archival Record for 112-114 S. Second Street, May 26, 1929.
[14] Lindhurst, M.A Thesis, p. 112. Cites Daily Missouri Republican, May 30, 1860; Schard, John Thomas, “Trade, Commerce and Manufacturers,” History of Saint Louis City and County: From the Earliest Periods to the Present Day: Including Biographical Sketches of Representative Men, Vol. 2 (St. Louis: L.H. Everts, 1883) p. 1332.
[15] Streiblein vs. Adam Lemp, December 14, 1848. Copy of lawsuit provided to the author by Stephen Walker.
[16] Inventory of personal property in Adam Lemp probate file (6229), August 29, 1862. The mash tub mentioned may be the one donated by Edwin Lemp to the Missouri History Museum.
[17] 1857 Kennedy’s St. Louis Directory as “LEMP ADAM, beerhouse and brewery, 37 s. 2d., Lemp, Wm., 37 s. 2d”; 1859 Kennedy’s St. Louis Directory, as “Lemp Adam, (Lemp & Co.) r. s. 2d, Lemp William, (Lemp & Co.) r. s. 2d, Lemp & Co., (Adam and William Lemp) saloon and brewery s. 2d”; 1860 Kennedy’s St. Louis Directory, as “LEMP ADAM, Western Brewery, 37 s. 2d, r. same, Lemp William, foreman, Adam Lemp, 37 s. 2d.”
[18] Kargau, 353.
[19] 1863 Campbell and Richardson’s St. Louis Business Directory, appearing as “LEMP W.J. & CO., WESTERN BREWERY AND BEER SALOON, 37 s. 2d.”
[20] Compton, Richard and Camille Dry, Illus. Pictorial St. Louis, the great metropolis of the Mississippi valley; a topographical survey drawn in perspective A.D. 1875. St. Louis: Compton & Co. 1876.
[21] Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Archival Record for 112-114 S. Second Street (Rear).
[22] Aerial photograph from 1932 flyover by Ted McCrea, N22145, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum.
[23] Marquis, Albert Nelson. “Francis A. Kauffman,” The book of St. Louisans; a biographical dictionary of leading living men of the city of St. Louis and vicinity (St. Louis: The St. Louis Republic, 1912) p. 325-326.
[24] Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Archival Record for 112-114 S. Second Street, May 26, 1929.
