The Caves of St. Louis have been important in the economic development of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The city was built upon a complex of natural caves which were once used for the lagering of beer by early German immigrant brewers. Caves are naturally cool, which was especially attractive to brewers before the advent of refrigeration. [1]
Several breweries were built atop these natural caves, which were altered to suit their purposes. Stone arches and brick ceilings prevented water seepage and uneven cave floors were paved with brick. In addition to being used for the storage and lagering of beer, such naturally cool places were sometimes employed as beer gardens, places for entertainment.
John Adam Lemp, coming to St. Louis from Germany in 1838, started a brewery using natural caves for refrigeration. His son William J. Lemp took over the business and built the Lemp Brewery industrial complex which still stands in St. Louis. [2] The Lemp Mansion was constructed by the Lemp Family and included a tunnel through the natural cave system leading to the Lemp Brewery. The Lemp Family would use this tunnel to go to work. [2]
An oral tradition in St. Louis links the cave system with the Underground Railroad. According to this tradition a tunnel behind the house at 3314 Lemp Avenue was used as a secret entrance to the caves. One entrance to the caves opens near the Mississippi River, where the slaves could make their way to freedom. [3]
Cherokee Caves was one attempt to turn the caves near the Lemp Brewery into a commercial attraction. They were closed and the site was demolished to make way for the construction of Interstate 55. [4] In January 2019, the Missouri Speleological Survey printed the History of Lemp Brewery Caverns and Cherokee Cave.
Old caves were often filled with rubble from the demolished buildings above them. Therefore, there may be many homes and houses currently built above entrances to the old system of caves which have since been filled in with rubble. The Lemp caves or Cherokee caves still exist. The original cave was around 24,000 feet walkable. After the construction of Interstate 55 there were about 22,000 feet of the cave remaining, but not open to the public.
Pilsner is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň, where the world's first pale lager was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewery.
Creemore Springs is a brewery in Creemore, Ontario, Canada, which first opened in 1987. It was founded by John Wiggins, and its flagship brew was a premium amber lager brewed with specialty malts, fire brewed in a copper kettle. In 2005, it was acquired by Molson, a subsidiary of the seventh largest brewery corporation in the world, Molson Coors Brewing Company.
Adolphus Busch was the German-born co-founder of Anheuser-Busch with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. He introduced numerous innovations, building the success of the company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became a philanthropist, using some of his wealth for education and humanitarian needs. His great-great-grandson, August Busch IV, is a former CEO of Anheuser-Busch.
Steam beer is made by fermenting lager yeast at a warmer than normal temperature.
Wrexham Lager is a lager brewed in Wrexham, north-east Wales, tracing its heritage to 1881. After the original brewery's closure in 2000, the brand was revived by the Roberts family in 2011 using an older recipe.
Lion Brewing was a New York City-based brewery established in 1857; it closed in 1944. In 1895, it was the sixth-largest brewery in the United States.
The Lemp Mansion is a historical house in Benton Park, St. Louis, Missouri. It is also the site of three suicides by Lemp family members after the death of the son Frederick Lemp, whose William J. Lemp Brewing Co. dominated the St. Louis beer market before Prohibition with its Falstaff beer brand. The mansion is said to be haunted by members of the Lemp family.
Onondaga Cave State Park is a Missouri state park located on the Meramec River approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of the village of Leasburg. The park was established in 1982. Park activities include cave tours, camping, fishing, hiking, picnicking, and swimming.
The Lemp Brewery was a beer brewing company established in 1840 in St. Louis, Missouri that was acquired by the Griesedieck Beverage Company in 1920, which subsequently became the Falstaff Brewing Corporation. The brewery complex property consists of 27 buildings on a 13.7-acre (0.055 km2) site in the Marine Villa neighborhood. St. Louisian Steve DeBellis has been the owner of the Lemp Brewing Company trademark since 1988.
The Falstaff Brewing Corporation was a major American brewery located in St. Louis, Missouri. With roots in the 1838 Lemp Brewery of St. Louis, the company was renamed after the Shakespearean character Sir John Falstaff in 1903. Production peaked in 1965 with 7,010,218 barrels brewed and then dropped 70% in the next 10 years. While its smaller labels linger on today, its main label Falstaff Beer went out of production in 2005. The rights to the brand are currently owned by Pabst Brewing Company.
Benton Park is a neighborhood in southside St. Louis, Missouri, just west of the Soulard neighborhood. The official boundaries of the area are Gravois Avenue on the north, Cherokee Street on the south, I-55 on the east, and Jefferson Avenue on the west. Benton Park is unrelated to Benton Place, a private street located in Lafayette Square, St. Louis.
Marine Villa is a neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. The neighborhood is located just south of the large and historic Anheuser-Busch Brewery complex along the bluffs of the Mississippi River. It is further defined by Cherokee Street's Antique Row on the north, Gasconade Street on the south, South Broadway and Jefferson Avenue on the west, and the Mississippi River on the east.
Lager is a type of beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage", as the beer was stored before drinking, traditionally in the same cool caves in which it was fermented.
The Chatillon–DeMenil Mansion, located at 3352 DeMenil Place in Benton Park, St. Louis, Missouri, was begun in 1848 for the pioneer Henry Chatillon, then enlarged to its present form by prominent St. Louis businessman Nicolas DeMenil from 1855 to 1863. The house serves as a house museum, and according to its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, described "as being the finest example of Greek Revival architecture in the Midwest."
The Schmidt Artist Lofts is a historic former brewery for Schmidt Brewery. It is located in the West Seventh neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The building was vacant for 11 years until a massive community and developer effort resulted in a plan for a revitalization of the brewery's historic building into the creation of the Schmidt Artist Lofts in 2013.
The Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company is a former brewing company that was located at 882 W. Seventh Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1855, the brewery was originally known as the Christopher Stahlmann Cave Brewery.
The Caves of Faribault is an artisan cheese company headquartered in Faribault, Minnesota as a division of Swiss Valley Farms. Utilizing sandstone caves to age cheese, the company makes a variety of raw milk products, including several styles of blue cheese, Gouda, and cheddar.
Cherokee Street is a culturally significant east-west street in South City, St. Louis, Missouri. Its western border is Grand Boulevard and its eastern border is Broadway.
