11/01/2025 Haunted Locations: The Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, Missouri
- Danielle Yvonne
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Happy Saturday! I hope everyone had a super spooky Halloween! Today’s haunted location brings us to St. Louis, MO. The Lemp Mansion offers a whole lot of family drama and death… and beer. Let’s dive in. This one is a doozie!
QUICK HISTORY:
William J. Lemp builds a mansion in the 1860s.
William uses the mansion as both the family home and an office for his brewery.
He is also the son of the brewery’s founder, Adam Lemp. Adam was an immigrant from Germany in the 1800’s.
William became iconic to the brewery industry due to his ideas for refrigeration, etc., which weren’t around back then.
Their business was wildly successful until the early 1900s, when tragedy after tragedy began happening. Thus, the Lemp Family Curse begins.
Per Ghost Guide Daniel:
In 1870 Lemp was by far the largest brewery in St. Louis and the Lemp family symbolized the city's wealth and power. Lemp beer controlled the lion's share of the St. Louis market, a position it held until Prohibition. In 1892 the brewery was incorporated as the William J. Lemp Brewing Co. In 1897 two of the brewing industry's titans toasted each other when William Lemp's daughter, Hilda, married Gustav Pabst of the noted Milwaukee brewing family.
Why is that important to the story? Welp, things are about to get a little chaotic... and as you can see, this family was a big deal a the time.
The Curse:
Frederick, the favorite son, gets sick. No matter what they tried, he ended up dying. He was only 23 years old. They made his death out to be something dramatic and mysterious, but realistically, he had heart failure. Sad, but nothing too wild. This was in 1901.
In 1904, his father William, still dealing with grief, took a revolver and shot himself in the master bedroom. Yes, he died.
Two years later? His wife dies. She ends up getting cancer, only lasts a couple of months, and dies in the same bedroom where her husband took his life.
Someone needed to take over the brewery. This ends up being William Jr. Unfortunately, he’s an alcoholic so this makes things tricky. The business suffers.
He ends up having a super public divorce after cheating on his wife a bunch of times and she found out. His excuse for cheating? His wife used foul language, wore colors to get attention from other men, and a bunch of other shenanigans.
She won the divorce as far as being rewarded a record high amount for the time, and full custody of their child.
Then prohibition happens. In 1920. This really makes profits plummet.
With all of this happening, plus a toxic relationship of her own, William’s sister Elsa takes a gun and shoots herself. Yes, she died.
Finally, William Lemp Jr has enough of it all and in 1922, and he sells the Brewery for barely any money. Then he walks into his office and also shoots/kills himself.
Ghost Guide Daniel does a really nice, quick catch-up:
Quick recap of death (to understand) …
His older brother, Frederick dies. The heir to the business. Favorite of William Sr, and Junior’s ticket to an easy life.
Then William Sr takes his own life.
His mother dies soon after.
He gains a habit for booze and falls into being an alcoholic.
His marriage breaks down. Along with losing his son, and a big portion of a dwindling fortune. Mixed with guilt from causing it all.
His sister moves in. Feeling she could be an ally in this terrible life… then losing her in the same way he lost his father.
The beloved family business is gone! Partly thanks to his mismanagement.
Can you imagine the guilt, sadness, pain, fear?
William Jr’s son, William III, decides he’s going to bring back the business once prohibition is over. Wrong… he ends up dying of a heart attack at 42 years old.
So now we have Charles Lemp. Charles is the brother of William Jr and the uncle of William III. Their other brother tried to talk him out of it, but Charles didn’t want to listen. He has a weird reputation for being angry all the time. He was also a germaphobe and refused to touch anyone, showered six times a day, oh, and he washed money before touching it.
Per Ghost Guide Daniel:
In 1941, Charles did something strange. He wrote a letter to a local funeral home.
It’s said this was the start of his fight with severe arthritis. The letter was clear on how he wanted things handled after his death. I’m sure it gave the Funeral Home’s employees pause. Afraid the man was a danger to himself.
Then nothing. 8 years later had passed with little word from Charles. Until the word passed along in 1949, and the final act in this story of a cursed family.
At 8 am on the morning of May 10th, 1949. Servant Alfred Bittner returned to clear the breakfast tray from Charles’s bedroom. Found it untouched. A note on the floor beside him. Making Charles the only Lemp to have left a suicide note. It simply said, “In case I am found dead, blame it on no one but me.”
They also found his dog, Cerva.
Charles had shot her first. It was said he didn’t want her to be alone after he was gone.
It’s Finally Over!
It’s not confirmed, but many believe it’s his way of ending the curse.
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/mo-lempmansion/ lays out all the different paranormal experiences that people have. Everything from being touched to women seeing a man peeking over the bathroom stall at them.
So, tell me. Have you heard of this location before? Have you been there? Would you go? Let me know in the comments. And as always, if you do decide to visit here or any haunted location, respect the property, respect the owners, respect the residents... living or dead.
For more details about this story, how you can visit, and links to the shows, podcasts, documentaries, and resources used for this post can all be found below.
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