Lemp Mansion Overnight Stay

Me and 2 of my friends stayed in the Lemp Mansion overnight…sorta a slumber party. The twist is that Lemp Mansion is rated in the top 10 haunted places in the U.S. by Time Magazine and #2 Haunted by the Travel Channel .

Sit back and I’ll walk you through the stay

The Lemp Mansion was built in the early 1860’s and was subsequently purchased by William J. Lemp as a residence and auxiliary brewery office. This thirty-three room Victorian showplace has been completely modernized and now serves the guests of the historic Lemp Mansion Restaurant.

I just loved this tree in the garden. There’s a gazebo and beautiful lavendar around the side of the house.

We were going on the tour so I took some pictures for ya’ll (just in case you never make it to the Lemp Mansion ).

Brief Overview:
John Adam Lemp arrived in St. Louis in 1838 and found fortune in lager beer. The brewery enjoyed success and he died a millionaire. William J. Lemp succeeded his father as the head of the brewery. In 1870 Lemp was the largest brewery in St. Louis.

In 1901 Frederick Lemp, William’s favorite son, died under mysterious circumstances. Three years later, William J. Lemp shot himself in the head in a bedroom at the family mansion (the room across from where we stayed ).

The brewery’s fortunes continued to decline until Prohibition (1919) closed the plant permanently. William Jr.’s sister Elsa committed suicide in 1920 (I read the article, I think she was murdered ). After selling the brewery in 1922, William J. Lemp, Jr. shot himself in his office (in the mansion). His son, William Lemp III, was forty-two when he died of a heart attack in 1943. William Jr.’s brother, Charles, continued to reside at the house after his brother’s suicide. An extremely bitter man, Charles led a reclusive existence until he too died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound (in the bar of the mansion). The body was discovered by his brother, Edwin.

In 1970, Edwin Lemp died of natural causes at the age of ninety. (How sad is this ).

Thought I’d get a couple close-ups of the main players in this sad story.

William J. Lemp Jr.
He was head of the brewery during it’s biggest rise and decline. He married twice, first to the infamous “lavendar lady” and then again after their scandalous divorce. After selling the brewery in 1922 he shot himself in the chest while sitting in his office located in the Lemp Mansion.

Thought I’d get a couple close-ups of the main players in this sad story.

Lillan Lemp “The Lavendar Lady”
There is an upstairs room called the Lavender Room, a moniker taken from Lillian Handlan Lemp, William Jr.’s wife, known as “the Lavender Lady.” She apparently dressed only in lavender in imitation of the Czarina of Russia. Their divorce was a huge scandel at the turn of the century. She lived a very long life afterward in an apartment in the Central West End.

So here we go on the tour.

The lady is our tour guide, Betty. The painting is of Lillian, the Lavendar Lady. The room is the office where William Jr. shot himself. So sad.

This is the atrium in the back of the house where the Lemps kept exotic plants and birds. The walls are painted with plants and the roof used to be a glass dome. Prior to the highway there were more windows and the view was of rolling hills down to the river.

Here’s my friend Lynn who is entralled with the divining rods that the tour guide gave her. I didn’t touch those things and honestly most of the tour I was ignoring the creepy tour guide and all the un-biblical talk about ghosts etc. I don’t play around with spiritual things…I was there to support Lynn (she was having back surgery the next day).

Anyhoo we’re in the dining room now where many have reported apparitions and “imprints” (as Betty called them).

A stained glass of Lillian (Lavendar Lady) in the bar area. This is newly added and looks nothing like her in my opinion.

A stained glass of William Jr. in the bar area. This is also newly added. The bar is where Charles Lemp shot himself (and his dog ).

O.k. you can’t say I didn’t take a hair picture

The tour is over and me, Cindy and Lynn are going to the store to get snacks. Everyone else is leaving and we will be staying here all by ourselves tonight.

Pictures taken outside on our way to the store. Betty, the creepy tour guide, said that we may see, hear, smell etc weird things during the tour or on our photos. She specifically referenced orbs. Well I got orbs ya’ll…bubbles is what I call them. All the little sparkle lights that kinda freaked me out yesterday when I checked my pictures.

Every picture I took outside had all these little sparkles in them. All I’ll say is it was not raining and it was about 80 degrees out with clear skies. These white things were not visible while I took the pictures. Lynn was thrilled that I caught orbs on my camera ’cause she felt jipped that we didn’t get a visit from a ghost during our stay

O.k. we’re back with all our bread, chocolate and chips and we’re in the house by ourselves now. That’s Cindy heading downstairs. Once we all got ready for bed Lynn ventured downstairs and all through the house by herself. Cindy and I stayed in the room.

Here’s our room, the lavendar ladies’ room. I absolutely loved the floor plan of this room and would’ve loved it to have been my bedroom. The huge pocket doors pictured were so the husband
and wife could sleep in separate rooms …. separate rooms? … no wonder everyone was killing themselves

…o.k. shame on me that was bad…move on

I switched sides so you could see the other side of the room w/ the bed. Lynn is coming out of the bathroom that was just fabulous (I didn’t get a picture … sowwy).

So we stayed up late talking and talking. I went to bed at 1:30 ’cause I had to go to work. Cindy and Lynn stayed up until 3. The slumber party was a success!!!

We made it to the morning just fine…I prayed before I stepped foot in that place and all was well.

Beautiful house huh?

The End.

http://www.lempmansion.com/

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