The Lemp Mansion in St. Louis is listed as one of the 10 most haunted houses in America. And it does have a story. The Lemp family, a wealthy beer dynasty, had three family members who committed suicide in the house, plus a dog (shot by one of the suicide victims), as well as an in general tragic family history. These statistics alone make your skin crawl.

Lemp Mansion today.

The home, fallen to ruins, was purchased and turned into a restaurant and inn by the Pointer family in the 70’s. It now stands as one of the more popular family restaurants, wedding, and party facilities in the city. When I spoke to one of its owners, Patty Pointer, as owners they say they neither confirm nor deny the fact that the house is haunted because people come to the Lemp Mansion year round and rent out its banquet facilities for all kinds of reasons, not just for Halloween haunting purposes. The fact that the service people there can tell of hauntings makes for further entertainment on a nightly basis, plus every Monday night, haunted tours are given at the mansion.

Also, their bed and breakfast services are utilized year-round but, not surprisingly, they are booked for Halloween 9 months to a year in advance.

I’ve been there for dinner and it does have a wonderfully charming component to it. Food is decent but the atmosphere priceless.
After dinner you can go upstairs, before the inn closes for the night, and tour the bedrooms and the attic. It’s spooky to be sure and oh how I’d love to spend the evening there. The way the story goes, the son to the original Lemp Dynasty William, shot himself after becoming horribly depressed when his favorite son and heir Frederick had been mysteriously killed three years before. Also they had had a son who had been locked up in the attic who had downs syndrome…..(not Frederick). Tremendous tragedy continued to strike the Lemp family when William’s sister also shot herself (I don’t know if that was in the home or not), but eventually William Jr, son of William and heir to the Lemp Dynasty shot himself in the same building where his father had killed himself 18 years earlier. Eventually William Jr’s brother, Charles, who continued to live in the mansion died of a self inflicted gunshot wound (and his dog) and was found by another brother Edwin. Edwin died of natural causes in 1970.

In the whole history of the Pointers owning the mansion no one has been hurt. The spirits who live there do reveal themselves to others from time to time, thus the “haunted house” reputation. The Lemp Mansion has also been featured on National Geographic, Discovery, MTV, most of the local news shows, etc.. So long may it’s hauntingness reign.

Now as it turns out, another highly publicized place is becoming notorious in St. Louis for being haunted and that is St. Louis’ very own City Museum. I wrote about City Museum for 2modern’s design blog because of how Green the City Museum is since it was created entirely from recycled materials from in and around St. Louis to become one of the more fantastical playgrounds for children and adults alike in I’d say the whole world.

Now I find out it too is haunted. But, and this wasn’t even connected by the Pointer family who owns the Lemp Mansion, City Museum used to be the site for the corporate headquarters of International Shoe Company. Turns out when the Lemp Brewery, owned by the Lemp family who lived in the now famous Lemp Mansion, closed it’s buildings which covered some 10 city blocks two miles south of St. Louis city proper, it was sold to dahdadahdah, International Shoe Company.

So, City Museum…..Lemp Brewery, two different sites, same owner, International Shoe Co., two haunted places, Lemp Mansion and the City Museum. I think there’s a deeper story here connected by the hereafter and to be continued.

Happy Halloween.

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