The Lemp Brewery published a job ad in St. Louis Post-Dispatch and asked 50 wreckers to report to the malthouse Monday morning. It dates back to the 1870s and was the oldest building on brewery grounds. Now was the time to move it forward. The Lamps were determined to revolutionize the crucial step before their beer went to the brewhouse by upgrading the capacity of the state-of-the-art grain elevator. They also used the most recent technology from General Electric as well as innovations in malting.
The most remarkable thing about all the capital improvements that Billy Lemp and his family made in the years following his father’s death is that the new malthouse has the same dimensions and appearance as the 1870s building it replaces. Some sources still identify it as the original structure. However, primary sources like the American Beers’ Review or General Electric’s employee newsletter clearly show that the building was constructed from scratch, reusing the old malthouse cellars. I believe that the cost of $3,500 for Hartmann Bricklaying and Construction’s September 12, 1906 building permit, which was listed as “Alter Brick Malt House,” may have been the cost of demolition or strengthening the cellars to make way for new construction.
Although the building permits were accurate up until this point, then again, it became murky about the exact cost of the new malthouse. The Gilsonite Co. filed a permit to “reconstruct stock houses” for $35,000 on November 14, 1907. This permit was filed on November 14, 1907, by Gilsonite Co. It could be for the reconstruction or, more likely because the city building permits are not complete. The descriptions and photos offer a fascinating glimpse into the malting process at an early 20th-century brewery.
In racking, the malt and mash would be forced into pipes through their cellars and brewery buildings using pumps. The Lamps were already using pumps for decades. The most remarkable thing about the 1907 pumps is their size and dependence on electricity. It was obvious that steam power was obsolete. I won’t go into detail about the new malthouse capacity. Instead, I will let the photos, many of them not been published in over 100 years, speak for themselves. It appears that there have been improvements to the pumps used to move the mash in the brewhouse. The malt house was the place where Lemps would coax their barley into growing. They would crack open their husks to stop their growth and provide sugars for their hungry yeast later in the fermentation process.
It’s not surprising that The American Architect and Buildings News and The Daily Bulletin of The Manufacturers’ Record announced in late 1907, that Guy Tyler Norton, Lemp architect, was planning a new power station with an estimated cost of $200,000 which was, at face value, the most expensive building ever commissioned by the brewery. It is possible that Norton worked with General Electric engineers to design the building. They customized their machinery to suit the Lemp Brewery’s requirements. C. Hansen was granted a permit to construct the famous smokestack on August 23, 1909. Hoffman-Hogan was granted a permit to build the foundations of the power plant for $8,500 a few months later. Hartmann Bricklaying and Construction were granted a permit to build a “1st-class 3-story boiler house” for $65,000 on December 1, 1909. These totals don’t add up to $200,000 as reported earlier. I believe the difference can be explained by the cost of boilers and other General Electric machinery. It is important to note that Billy Lemp was going through a divorce from Lillian Handlan, and this courtroom drama didn’t seem to have an impact on brewery construction or operations.
The construction of the new power plant continued well into 1910. Other trade journals reported that Norton was still working on its design. But the Lemps weren’t content to rest on their laurels. They had already asked their brewery architect for the design of the New Stock House which is located at the intersection of Cherokee Street and DeMenil Place.
The New Stock House is an impressive, tall edifice. Unfortunately, windows were added to its upper floors by the International Show Company. We can still see that Billy Lemp and his family wanted to move the family brewery into a new age with the ability to store large amounts of beer, as well as new tunnels to transport their product to the bottling plant to the east. According to a July 5, 1911 building permit, the foundations built by Goebel cost $8,000 and are deep in the ground. It is also fascinating to see the footings, which are concrete-poured. One can also see how the wreckers removed the old stone foundations from the original offices. The stock house rises seven stories and the white glazed brick walls in the interior are still intact. Hartmann Bricklaying and Construction again erected this Norton design, according to the Western Contractor for $78,000. Since the original offices were demolished, Lemp Mansion was now used for company operations. A November 8, 1911 buildings permit shows that the Lemp family built the three-story vault for $1300. This reflects the house’s new role as a brewery operation.
One last thing that is hidden in plain sight is the multi-million dollar investment made by the Lemp family in their brewery in the years preceding Prohibition. It becomes obvious from the south side that this wall is temporary. This temporary wall has been in existence for over 100 years. We also notice that the brewhouse stands out when compared to other buildings. The replacement would have been placed back like the others on the alleyway. The Lamps planned to rebuild and expand their brewery in preparation for the next generation. This is why the temporary wall that lies in front of the New Stock House. This is in keeping with the expansion of other buildings in the brewery. Then Prohibition arrived and destroyed everything. Billy Lemp wasn’t depressed at the loss of his brewery; rather, he was angry at having spent so much money on upgrading a brewery that was unusable within a matter of hours. One million dollars was wasted.
