The Lemp Mansion (www.lempmansion.com)
in St. Louis is claimed to be ‘Missouri’s
Most Haunted House’, claiming the
further title of ‘one of the 10 Most
Haunted Houses in America’. Haunted
or ‘unhaunted’, this house has
been the scene of triumph through to tragedy,
with a background of intrigue, scandal and
suicide. With the Mississippi River and
the Gateway Arch in the backdrop, the Lemp
Mansion is a magnificent Victorian relic
beside the bustling modern city. What are
some of the stories that form the rich history
and folklore of the Lemp Mansion?
Once the home of the Beer
Baron Lemp family, nothing but a storm was
brewing the night I visited the Mansion.
Originally from Germany, the Lemps made
their fortune as America’s first brewers
of lager beer. From poverty to prosperity
to Prohibition, the family was beset by
misfortune, including five deaths by suicide.
Three of these occurred at the Mansion,
seeming to ignite a range of paranormal
phenomena. The Mansion is no longer owned
by the Lemps…the last family member
died in 1970…but are they still there?
Built in the 1860s as
a residence and office, the Mansion now
serves as a Restaurant and Inn. The distillery,
once covering ten city blocks, now stands
derelict in the background. ‘Haunted
Tours’ of the Mansion are operated
every Monday (www.stlspiritsearch.com) but
daring diners are invited to inspect the
premises at any time. The Mansion thrives
off its haunted reputation that is carefully
cultivated by the owners (and clearly, by
reports such as this!). I engaged in a lively
discussion with other guests, as we swapped
ghost stories with each other, and the staff.
These anecdotes include the phantom sounds
of a piano playing and ragtime music; disappearing
objects; doors inexplicably locking and
unlocking; lights inexplicably switching
on and off, and poltergeist-like activity
in the bar such as drinks ‘stirring
themselves’, glasses lifting off the
bar then flying through the air, smashing
as they hit the ground.
It is said that the Mansion
is a hotbed of paranormal activity. I found
it to be a hotbed of paranormal investigators.
My visit coincided with an investigation
by the Iowa Paranormal Advanced Research
Team (www.diepart.com).
I chatted with a few members of this team,
and found them to be friendly and knowledgeable
about the reputed phenomena in the Mansion
(if not as scathingly skeptical as I!).
Still in preparation for their all-night
vigil, by this time they had already experienced
some odd events: inexplicable feelings of
panic, nausea, depression and dread; the
sounds of voices and whispers coming from
the bedrooms; a sense of being watched;
and a sense of being touched. It isn’t
hard to list some possible natural causes
here (e.g., an overactive imagination fuelled
by excitement and knowledge of the stories?
Simple background noise?). The full report
of their eventful investigation can be found
here: (www.diepart.com/379976.html).
Many similar organizations have trundled
their way through this infamous house, ghost
hunting equipment in tow.
The 33 room Mansion has
some curious features, both above and below
ground. The underground features include
an auditorium, ballroom and swimming pool
built in a natural cavern, the Cherokee
Cave. A tunnel was built that led from the
house to the brewery, and a natural cave
system exists beneath the property that
was once used for aging beer. Disused and
dangerous, these hidden passageways are
now sealed shut. The house itself is filled
with period furniture, hand-painted ceilings,
Italian marble and carved wood detailing,
and has three massive vaults that housed
the Lemp’s art collection (one of
these vaults is now a museum). Then there
are the features that are not so apparent…
Following the death of
Edwin Lemp in 1970 at age 90, the last member
of the Lemp dynasty, the building became
a boarding house, and rumors of the ‘Haunted
Lemp Mansion’ began to circulate.
These intensified when the current owners,
the Pointers, purchased the property in
1975. A team of tradespeople who restored
the building were reputedly subjected to
a range of phenomena, including the inexplicable
sounds of screams, gun shots, laughs, cries,
and voices calling out their names. Apparently,
these were harrowing enough to lead a few
workers to quit. In another story, a psychic
visited the house and ‘heard horses
neighing’. This was evidently ‘proved’
by the later discovery of a ‘horse
tethering lot’.
The second floor and third
floor rooms (the latter were once the servant’s
quarters) have been converted into guest
suites. It is here that the ‘Lavender
Lady’ has been witnessed gliding through
the rooms and halls. This apparition, of
a woman in a Victorian-style lavender-colored
dress, is the reputed ghost of Lillian Lemp.
Lillian was once the unfortunate wife of
William Lemp, one time family patriarch.
She was an eccentric figure who exclusively
wore lavender-colored clothing, and adored
lavender as a color and a fragrance. There
is a portrait of her hanging in the dining
room, and upon walking past it, some claim
to smell the scent of lavender. This room
was once William’s office, and where
he eventually committed suicide. A few male
visitors have reported being ‘violently
pushed’ out of this room, reputedly
by William’s ‘ghost’.
But he liked the ladies. Lillian suffered
at his constant philandering and scandal-causing
drunken debauchery with prostitutes at parties
in the underground caves. Reputedly, William
continues his lechery still, making voyeuristic
appearances in the women’s bathrooms!
The troubled marriage
ended in divorce, but not before William’s
womanizing ways led to the birth of an illegitimate
son…according to legend. This child
reputedly had Down Syndrome, and was hidden
in the attic away from the public eye. He
is cruelly referred to as the “Monkey
Face Boy”. There is only anecdotal
evidence to attest to the existence of this
child, based on the ‘testimony’
of a psychic. However, the tale smacks of
a moralistic warning and urban legend. The
unnamed boy is believed to be a permanent
ghostly resident of the Mansion, and has
been ‘seen’ from the street,
peeking from the windows (perhaps these
have been real guests?). Other reports state
that the lad plays with toys he finds on
the premises. Some claim to have heard him
call out, “Come play with me”,
seeking the love and attention he never
received in life.
Visitors have reported
a wide range of phenomena at the Mansion.
The Atrium room, now serving dinner guests,
once had a glass dome ceiling and housed
exotic plants and birds. Some have ‘heard’
the sounds of phantom bird song here. Another
story claims that a phantom guest can be
seen sitting at a table in the dining rooms,
and that a misty, white apparition appears
in these rooms. Candles mysteriously set
alight, and table cloths have been swiftly
ripped from the tables. Throughout the halls,
the smell of cigar smoke and alcohol apparently
fills the air. As always, it is not difficult
to imagine some natural sources for these
phenomena, but it all makes for a fine story,
and the reports become stranger still…
Some overnight guests
claim to be awoken by the sensation of someone
stroking their hair, in a comforting manner.
Others report that their personal items
have disappeared, especially cell phones,
while others receive phantom phone calls
during their visit. Some report that their
personal belongings have been disturbed
and moved. This is often attributed to Charles
Lemp, who possibly demonstrated symptoms
of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder later in
his life. Affected by the family ‘curse’,
Charles eventually committed suicide, minutes
after having shot and killed his pet dog.
Some visitors now claim to hear the sounds
of a phantom dog, barking and panting, or
feel a friendly dog brushing up against
them. Others report ‘cold spots’
at the site of the many suicides that occurred
in the Mansion. These are but a mere few
of the stories surrounding the house…
Is the Lemp Mansion really
haunted? It certainly has a well-crafted
reputation as a haunted house. I didn’t
experience any phenomena first-hand, nor
had any of the visitors or staff members
that I interviewed. Nevertheless, these
haunted stories form part of the folklore
of the Mansion, and haven’t been bad
for business, either.
Karen
Stollznow
 |
20
QUESTIONS WITH KAREN STOLLZNOW
Karen
has researched and written about a
large range of phenomena, including:
ghosts, psychics, aura reading, poltergeists,
mediums and spiritualism, chain letters,
astrology, tarot, divination, hoaxes,
pareidolia, angels, cults, curses,
UFOs, legends, cryptozoology, psychic
healing, tarot, graphology, automatic
writing, anti-gravity spots, conspiracy
theories, and alternative medicine.
> MORE
HERE <
|
Karen Stollznow is Associate Editor of
The Skeptic magazine and is a Committee
Member of the Australian Skeptics Inc. Karen
has been an investigative researcher of
the paranormal and pseudoscientific for
the past ten years. Karen has a prolific
publishing record that includes a decade
of contributions to The Skeptic, a column
in Australasian Science, articles in The
Skeptical Inquirer, and a chapter in Michael
Shermer's book on alternative medicine,
Heilungsversprechen.
