What was "Lemp's Cave" really like?

 Lemp’s Cave. – We paid a visit, a few days ago, to the cave below the city, which Mr. LEMP has opened and fitted up for the storage of beer and other malt liquors. The cave is one hundred yards long, and is divided into three compartments: the average width is about twenty feet, and the arch is turned with great regularity. Mr. L. has now stored in it about 3,000 barrels, and more may, when his arrangements are complete, be stored in it. The cave, and the style in which it is fitted up, and the taste displayed in the laying of the grounds, will richly repay a visit.

In this establishment, we noticed some large casks, capable of holding some twenty or thirty barrels of beer, which were manufactured in this city by a German. As a specimen of workmanship, they could hardly be excelled in any country.¹

By 1845, Adam Lemp’s operations south of the city, in the St. Louis Commons, attracted the attention of a reporter from the Daily Missouri Republican. The cave system under the Lemp Brewery and nearby properties have become legendary over the last 30 years, as the mystique of the doomed dynasty has joined the ranks of St. Louis history. Regardless, many myths and other stories have arisen, as the caverns lie dozens of feet below the streets of Benton Park.

Also see: Unveiling the real Johann Adam Lemp

Perhaps one of the most interesting discoveries revolves around Adam Lemp’s purchase and ownership of the original property. Contrary to many stories, the first piece of property he purchased to lager his beer was on the north side of Cherokee Street, on the grounds of what are now warehouses at the corner of DeMenil Place (but known at the time as Second Carondelet Avenue and later 13th Street). Despite already being firmly in operation in 1845, at the time of the aforementioned newspaper article, Adam did not own the land—he would not buy the property until 1847. In two places in the probate records of Adam Lemp, dated 1862, his will and a property inventory reveal that he purchased the lots of “Lemp’s Cave Addition” from “Bryan Mullanphy, Mayor of St. Louis,"² and the “City of St. Louis.”³ It seems that it was not the personal property of Mullanphy; the St. Louis Commons was still owned by the city. Judging from a vague reference about Adam setting to work building his lagering caves on Cherokee Street shortly after his brewery’s founding on S. Second Street,[4] he most likely rented the property from the city for several years before choosing to purchase the cave lot. Lindhurst seems to have erred in stating that Adam Lemp bought his first piece of in 1855, a “139-foot lot facing Cherokee Street.”⁵

By the 1840s, there were many beer gardens in operation in the countryside, on the outskirts of the growing city.⁶ Many thousands of people patronized beer gardens such as English Cave or Uhrig’s Cave, the former of which was just a few blocks north of the Lemp properties on Cherokee Street.⁷ Lemp’s Cave was one of the most popular beer gardens out of numerous gardens,⁸ and judging from the description in the Daily Missouri Republican, it was very well appointed, and looked like a traditional German beer garden. There is a common misconception that visitors would be entertained in these caves, and the 1851 map clearly shows the “Lemp’s Cave” beer garden with an entrance pavilion to the north of the lot with the cellar house.⁹

Also see: Adam Lemp's riverfront brewery was the birthplace of lager beer in St. Louis—and perhaps America

Interestingly, Lemp’s Cave shows up for the first time in the 1857 Kennedy’s City Directory; both Adam and his son William are still listed as living at the S. Second Street address.¹⁰ However, Adam would build a stately Italianate country home (No. 4 in Plate 9 of Pictorial St. Louis), captured in a frustratingly composed photographic view of Second Carondelet Avenue, which cuts off the southern¹¹ half of the front façade. The house would stay in Louise Bauer Lemp’s possession,¹² with the interesting restriction that her heirs (not related by blood to Adam and William Lemp, or Adam’s grandson from his first marriage, Charles Brauneck) could not build any sort of malt house or brewery building on her portion of the land known as Lemp’s Cave.¹³

Examining Compton and Dry’s Pictorial St. Louis, old fire insurance maps, and a painting by Charles Wimar in the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, we can get an image of what the buildings looked like in 1862, at the death of Adam Lemp. Starting first with the aforementioned Schultse Map from 1851, the cave house sitting on top of the still-extant entrance to the caves appears as a black rectangle in the middle of the lot on the north side of Cherokee Street. Surely, the now-damaged spiral staircase that many spelunkers are now familiar with was constructed later, as the barrels of lager beer could not have been placed or removed if that staircase was in the way.

Also see: What did Adam Lemp's Western Brewery look like? We'll never know—but here are some clues

Charles Wimar’s 1859 depiction of The Adam Lemp Brewery on Cherokee Street (the title is a later anachronism, as city directories clearly do not mention brewing at that early of a date) reveals a fascinating window into the Lemp’s Cave gardens.¹⁴ The view is towards the southwest, as the cupola of the Marine Hospital can be viewed off in the distance. Men push barrels of beer around the beautifully landscaped property, and the open gable-roofed and rubble stone constructed cave house is seen to the left, complete with a ramp down to the basement of that building, where presumably there was a winch that lowered barrels down into the cavern. Whipple Fire Insurance Maps, which the author viewed at the Missouri History Museum, reveal a similar shaped building covered by later pieces of paper.¹⁵ Likewise, the later brick buildings (which functioned as coopers’ workshops) in the right background are visible under the layers of paper on the same map. (Unfortunately, these latent buildings are not visible in photographs of these maps, and can only be viewed in person.)

At this point, after seeing the cave house on the left, the logic of the Lemp Brewery advertisement with three buildings depicted on it comes into context. The one building in the background is clearly the structure in the background. Stone rubble wall construction was logical; the site was remote in the early 1840s, far from nascent brickyards but close to quarries,¹⁶ many of which the author suspects later became lagering cellars for various breweries on the South Side. Likewise, the small, brick building (not seen in the Wimar painting) can also be observed at the corner of Cherokee and Second Carondelet Avenue under layers of the Whipple map and in the 1875 Pictorial St. Louis.¹⁷

Also see: Get the first look at the trailer for "The Case for Elsa Lemp"

The beauty of the Lemp’s Cave property, described both in words and in the Wimar painting, gives us a fascinating look into then-rural St. Louis County. But there is still the last stone building in the Lemp advertisement with the hipped roof. An explanation comes in the description Adam left behind in his will. While it is true that William Lemp moved the brewing operations to Cherokee Street,¹⁸ it turns out that his father was beyond a doubt already planning extensive investment in the area around his lagering cave.

As can be seen in a previously unpublished drawing by Lemp architects, possibly Guy Tyler Norton, Adam wisely purchased multiple lots on the south side of Cherokee Street in the Bogy, Sarpy, and Miltenberger’s Subdivision. In his will, Adam mentions owning a building on the south side of the street; the author suspects the hipped-roof building in the advertisement is this previously undocumented building.¹⁹ It was demolished by 1875, when William built the new, modern Lemp Brewery. The author suspects the building was built on a sinkhole or old quarry that was filled with the groin-vaulted cellars that still exist under the brew house. In his will, Adam speaks of both a cave and cellar; perhaps those famous cellars had already been built by 1862 under the Bogy et al. addition properties.²⁰

Also see: A look at the treatise Louis Lemp wrote when he was a young brewing student

Perhaps “Lemp’s Cave” was now closed, as the inventory of Adam Lemp’s personal property dated August 29, 1862 does not mention furnishings for a beer garden on the cave property.²¹ But the cave itself, deep under the ground, was still very much there, and new documents shed light on how it was furnished, and perhaps its size. First off, it is well-documented that the nearby Cherokee Cave, largely under the property of the DeMenil family, was not accessible from the Lemp Cave portion of the same system until Lee Hess excavated a solid clay-filled passageway in the 1940s.²² The previously unpublished Lemp company map likewise shows no connection before Mr. Hess’s intervention.

One prevailing myth, which needs to be squashed now, is that there was ever cave access from the Feickert-Lemp Mansion, north of the DeMenil property. There never was, and there is none today from either property on the east side of what was Second Carondelet Avenue. The author does believe accounts of a brick wall being constructed to segregate different breweries’ yeast strains, as the brewers wisely realized that even if humans could not access both sides of the clay blocked passage, the caves formed part of a larger cave system that possible emptied out in the river near the old Lemp ice houses.²³ Also, beyond a doubt, there is another portion of the Lemp cave to the west of the spiral staircase, and this is even noted in the Simpson article’s illustration of the Lemp Cave. Right up to Adam’s death, there was continual improvement to the cave with the installation of locking doors, paving on the cave floor, and landscaping up in the gardens above.²⁴

Also see: Take a look inside a Lemp Brewery Souvenir Book, circa the 1893 Columbian Exposition

Adam’s probate records note an inventory of several thousand dollars' worth of beer in the cave at his death. Anxious to sell the beer, William Lemp and Charles Brauneck filed a request in probate court to release the beer to their custody.²⁵ A portion of the inventory in Adam’s probate files may list just how much beer was in the caves at the time, and the listing of “25-barrel casks” sounds similar to the giant vessels mentioned in the Daily Missouri Republican article mentioned at the beginning of this article.²⁶ Nonetheless, it shows that the son and grandson of Adam Lemp were ready to continue the legacy of their family’s brewery in its expanding base on Cherokee Street.

The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following people and organizations: Lynn Josse, Frederick Atwood III; Jaime Bourassa, Dennis Northcott, and others at the Missouri History Museum and Archives; and Andrea Meszaros and Jessica Rahmer at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via email at naffziger@gmail.com.

[1] “Lemp’s Cave,” Daily Missouri Republican, April 10, 1845.

[2] Inventory of assets and debts in Adam Lemp probate file (6229), Sept 2, 1862: “November 13, 1847 Bryan Mullanphy, Mayor of the city of St. Louis $970 Lemp Addition No. 5, page 357”; Adam Lemp Will (6229), Section III, 2-4, February 12, 1862. “To Brauneck and Lemp, the remainder of the 64 feet by 250 deep lot known as “Lemp’s Cave.” “All vats, barrels, vessels, apparatuses, utensils oils, and things” together with all beer in the cave or beer cellar belonging to me known as Lemp’s Cave, the entrance which is upon the lot described above, also all the property in the house above the cave and coopering machine.”

[3] Real estate inventory in Adam Lemp probate file (6299), March 22, 1865, pg. 2. “Southeast quadrant of Lemp’s Addition, Block no. 52. November 13, 1847 from the City of St. Louis, Book K5, pg 357.”

[4] “St. Louis,” One Hundred Years of Brewing, A Supplement to the Western Brewer, Vol. XXVI, No. 8 (August 1901) p. 166.

[5] Lindhurst, M.A. Thesis, p. 73.

[6] Ibid, p. 40.

[7] Ibid, p. 99. Cites Daily Missouri Democrat, July 6, 1857.

[8] Ibid, p. 101. Cites Daily Missouri Democrat, June 28, 1858, July 6, 1858

[9] Edward Charles Schultse. Map of St. Louis. St. Louis: Leffingwell & Elliott, 1851. Collection of Missouri History Museum.

[10] 1857 Kennedy’s St. Louis Directory. “LEMP ADAM, beerhouse and brewery, 37 s. 2d.;

Lemp, Wm., 37 s. 2d; LEMP’S CAVE, ne c. Lemp & Cherokee.”

[11] N04071, Collection of Missouri History Museum.

[12] Adam Lemp Will (6229), Section II, February 12, 1862. “Gives to his wife Louise Lemp, Lots 36,37,38 and 39 in Block No. 2 of Adam Lemp’s Subdivision of the southeast quarter of block no. 52 of the City Commons of St. Louis, aggregate of 100 feet along Lux Street and running westwardly the same width 125 feet to an alley, bounded on the east side by Lux Street, south by Lot no. 40, west by said alley and north by Lot. No 35 in said block no. 2.”

“Also, northern part of said subdivision on said plat as Lemp’s Cave and described as follows, to wit: commencing at the intersection of the westward line of 2nd Carondelet Avenue, with the southern line of an alley, running through said subdivision from east to west parallel to Cherokee, thence along 2nd Car. 64 feet then westwardly and parallel to alley 260 feet 5 in. more or less to Lux Street; 64 feet, then along southern line of alley for 260 feet, being the same premises on which I have erected the dwelling I now live.”

[13] Adam Lemp Will (6229), Section III, 5, February 12, 1862. “Heirs cannot construct a brewery or malt house on northern half of lot that has Lemp’s Cave.”

[14] Charles Ferdinand Wimar, American (born Germany), 1828-1862; The Adam Lemp Brewery, Saint Louis, 1859, 1859; oil on canvas; 35 ¼ X 54 1/8 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Given by Marion Lemp Hawes, Ann Konta Brewer, and Phyllis Konta Olivieri in memory of William J. Lemp, 690:1949.

[15] Whipple's fire insurance map of St. Louis, Mo. Volume 5, Plate , 1896.

[16] “A Busy Man: Coroner Nidelet Has Seven Cases on Hand This Morning,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, Monday, October 20, 1884. The article mentions the death of a man who fell into a quarry near the Lemp Brewery.

[17] 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, Plate 9.

[18] 1866 Edwards’ St. Louis Directory: “Lemp William (Stumpf & Lemp), r. 37 s. 2d; Lemp William J. (W.J. Lemp & Co.); LEMP WILLIAM J. Western Brewery, office, 37 s. 2d, r. same, brewery, (n)ear Arsenal; Lemp, W. J. & Co. (William J. Lemp and Charles Branneck), brewers, ss Cherokee, nr. Carondelet av.”

[19] Adam Lemp Will (6229), Section III, 5, February 12, 1862, “Also, lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Block no. 8 of Bogy, Sarpy and Miltenbergers Additions to the City of St. Louis, acquired by me from Eugene Miltenberger together with all the buildings and improvements thereon and the cave underneath the same and all the barrels, vats, tubs, and every other article in the building and cave belonging to the brewery…”; Inventory of assets and debts in Adam Lemp probate file (6229), Sept 2, 1862. “May 1855? Lots 1-5 Miltenberger $2,118.50 not recorded,” and “1 November 1856 Miltenberger 7 and 8 Block number 8 Book 196 page 36 $900”; Real estate inventory in Adam Lemp probate file (6229), March 22, 1865, pg. 1, “Also, lots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in Block No. 18, Boggs, Sarpy and Miltenberger Addition, front south side of Cherokee Street for 129 feet, 6 in. Lot 6 May 13, 1855 book 266, pg 229 also lots 7 and 8 in block 8, November 1, 1856 Book 196, pg 36.”

[20] Adam Lemp Will (6229), Section III, 3, February 12, 1862.

[21] Inventory of personal property in Adam Lemp probate file (6229), August 29, 1862

[22] Simpson, George Gaylord, “Bones in the Brewery: A Paleontologist's Rendezvous with History and Prehistory in St. Louis,” Natural History, Vol. 55, No. 6 (June 1946) pp. 252-259.

[23] “Caught in a Cave: Minnie Washburne is a Wicked Girl and is Now Locked Up,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wednesday, November 6, 1895. The article mentions that Miss Washburne and her male cohorts were hiding in a cave near the Lemp ice houses. This cave has been incorporated into the city’s sewers that empty out into the Mississippi River.

[24] Invoice in Adam Lemp probate file (6229) from Fritz Gabel, September 11, 1862. Work was March 17th to July 14th for paving in the garden, in the cave, grading work, $271.65, Sand, brick pavement, etc, labor for Fritz Gabel and employees; Invoice in Adam Lemp probate file (6229) from Francis Guerdan, September 12, 1862 for work in cave, July and August 1862, Francis Guerdan’s labor and his employees’, extensive work in the cave, including installing iron door, fixing broken doors, billed $80.70 for locks, keys, “labor in the cave” and “mending old doors.”

[25] Adam Lemp Probate Records (6229).

[26] Inventory of assets and debts in Adam Lemp probate file (6229), Sept 2, 1862: “95 25-barrel casks $1662.50, 31 25-barrel casks $968, 5 fermenting tubs $50, 450 barrels of lager beer $2,250.”