The Lemp Mansion, A St. Louis Haunted House!

It’s The Lemp Mansion!I grew up hearing stories about The Lemp Family and their haunted mansion.~The History~

The Lemp Family were America’s first lager beer brewers. Their brewery was the largest in St. Louis and covered 5 city blocks, including under the city. 

Tragedy runs in The Lemp Family, as the first born son and heir of the brewery, Fredrick Lemp died of mysterious circumstances. His Father, William J. Lemp was devastated and committed suicide 3 years later in the family mansion.

William J. Lemp Jr. took over as President of the Lemp Brewery, but Prohibition troubled the family and the company. 

William Jr.’s sister, Elsa, committed suicide in 1920 and 2 years later the company was sold.

After the brewery was sold, William Jr. went back to the family mansion and also committed suicide, in the same place his Father did.

20 years later, William Jr.’s son died of a heart attack at the young age of 42. 

Charles, William Jr.’s brother continued to live in the family mansion until he also committed suicide inside the house. 

Read more about the history of The Lemp Family and The Lemp Mansion HERE.

~Now~

The Lemp Mansion is a beautiful old house with gorgeous grounds. It is now a restaurant and bed and breakfast. It also hosts weddings and receptions, parties, murder mystery dinners, ghost tours and much more!

We had our wedding reception there. We were so excited to have it there.

When visiting the house and grounds at first we met many of the staff who of course told us haunted stories. Some of the stories were shocking and unbelievable. 

One staff member told us of a story of coming into work early in the morning and seeing a gentleman sitting at a table. She went to go grab him coffee and he was gone. She asked some other co-workers where he went and no one had seen him. He just disappeared.

We heard another story of a groundskeeper doing some work in the garden and had all his tools in his bag. He went inside to the Stable House for a minute and when he came back, all his tools were laying on the ground in a row.

The day before my wedding, my Maid of Honor Beth and I stopped by the Mansion. We were dropping off our dresses, because my bridal party would be getting ready in a guest room at The Lemp Mansion.

We arrived after 6pm and the mansion was closed. We had keys to the mansion, and the keys came on a giant key ring. Of course, just out of a horror film, the door creaked as we opened it and then slammed after us. We headed up the stairs to The Charles Lemp Suite. We had the room for the night, so we were also thinking of staying the night there too. Heath and I also had a complimentary night in the room also for our wedding night. 

We hung up our dresses and then explored the room. 

It was eerily quit throughout the mansion. The room was very pretty, with the decor being from the 1940’s.

All of a sudden we heard chimes and soft noises in the room. It looked to be coming from behind a door in the room. We thought maybe it was a closet, so Beth tried to open it. The door was locked and as soon as she tried opening the door it suddenly stopped.

Ok, no biggie. 

I went over to the far end of the room where there was a sink and a mirror. It was right next to a window. 

All of a sudden, as I was looking into my reflection in the mirror, there was the biggest smack imaginable on the window. Beth and I both jumped. I looked out the window, but being on the 2nd floor, there was no one there. No bird, either.

We RAN out of the room. As fast as we could. Ran down the steps, barely locking the door behind us. We were parked down the street and we pretty much ran to Beth’s car, our hearts beating so fast.

Yeah, we didn’t spend the night there that night. And Heath and I didn’t spend our wedding night there either.

Since we had the free night for our wedding, we gave it to my Aunt. She decided that after the reception she would stay in the room with my 14 year old cousin.

They got up there around midnight.

They didn’t make it through the night.

Around 2am, after hearing many creaks and groans and bangs, they high tailed it out of the house, much like Beth and I did. 

 *Picture of The Lemp Mansion our wedding night.

In November of last year, Heath and I got a group of friends together and went on a “Paranormal Tour” of The Lemp Mansion.

We had a tour of the three floors of the mansion and learned the history of the mansion. We were also provided with Infrared cameras to record our experience. I also brought my camera to take pictures too. 

The Charles Lemp Room, where Beth and I had our “experience”. See all those spots?

Orbs or dust?

The room was pitch black, but my camera’s flash lit up the room. While in there, I told the tour guide how we heard noises from behind that locked door a couple years ago.

Her face had a strange look on it, and she asked “Really?”. She then told me how behind that locked door was Charles Lemp’s office and that is actually where he committed suicide. They get reports all the time of people hearing noises from behind that door and also of a dog barking.

Creepy.

The next room we went to was The William Lemp Suite. The room was again pitch black. The tour guide began asking questions aloud, to see if anyone was “there” with us.

I was looking at the window and saw the curtains start moving. I immediately took a picture. Before we went to the next room, I went to the window to make sure that the radiator wasn’t blowing any air and the window wasn’t open. It wasn’t.

I looked at the picture on my camera.

See that DARK orb by the top of the window? That’s where I saw the curtain moving.

The tour was really interesting and we had a lot of fun. I would love to do it again. Heath and I like going to the restaurant for dinner.

Maybe someday Heath and I will stay the night. Maybe if we can get a whole group of friends to fill the other rooms!

Make sure to check out Ghost Hunters tonight on the SyFy channel!

They are investigating The Lemp Mansion and I can not wait to watch it!!