The Lemp Family Mansion and Brewery

• by George Bailey • Published: May 10, 2009

St. Louis' Lemp Mansion was voted by Life Magazine one of the ten most haunted places in America. The house was built by money the Lemps earned in their brewery. Johann started out in St. Louis selling his own homemade beer out of a general store. Inspired by the popularity of the drink, he eventually transitioned into the brewery business. Lemp's beer is purported to have been the first lager beer to appear in St. Louis. Lighter than the European (mostly English) ales that had proliferated, Lemp's beer gained rapid popularity. Johann died around the onset of the company's fame, and his son William took over. The famous mansion William purchased was close enough to the brewery for underground tunnels to be used as passageways between the home and workplace. The tragic Lemp family saga commenced while William was running things. First, his son Frederick died. William struggled to cope for three years before succumbing to suicide. Voluntary self-extinction would recur. William's daught Elsa killed herself in the same manner in 1920. Will Jr. would shoot himself, not in the head, but in the heart, much later, in 1922. By then the fortune Johann Adam Lemp had built from scratched had been more or less liquidated by family depression and prohibition. Today, the mansion has been converted into a hotel and is believed to be routinely visited by the ghosts of the troubled Lemps. St. Louis is roughly 4 hours away from Branson Missouri if you are driving...