The Lemp
Mansion, purported to be the “most haunted place in America”, was built in 1868
by St. Louisian Jacob Feickert. His son-in-law, William J. Lemp and his wife,
Julia, moved into the mansion in 1876. In 1911, the house underwent major
renovations including conversion of some space into offices for the Lemp
Brewery, just next door. Before prohibition, the Lemp Brewery was one of the
largest breweries in the country and is where the Falstaff beer brand originated.
Someone from the Lemp family lived in
the house until 1949, when Charles Lemp committed suicide. His suicide was the
last in a series of many tragic Lemp family events and the 3rd Lemp family suicide
at the mansion. Here is a link for more info on the mansion’s history:
We had
the pleasure of ghost hunting in the Lemp Mansion on Sean’s Birthday! We had
about an hour and a half in the mansion, with some pretty incredible events
happening. The first occurrence happened to Sean while we were waiting for our
tour to start; Sean was having an adult beverage and he felt a strong tug on
his shirt, like he had spilled his drink on his shirt. But upon feeling his
shirt, it was completely dry. At the
same time, words on Ghost Radar came up: may, dropped, highest, mean and toy. Some
of these words would also seem to make more sense as we learned more about the
mansion’s history and haunting activity.
One exciting
part of our investigation was that it included an infrared video camera for
each of us to use. Our tour started with our guide, Rivika, taking us up to the
3rd floor, which was originally the servants’ quarters and attic.
The 3rd floor is also the most active part of the mansion. The 3rd floor reputedly also
housed the illegitimate and mentally handicapped son (named Zeke) of William
Lemp Jr. for his whole life. Rivika told us that Zeke is the most active entity
of the mansion and is very mischievous-he likes to “mess with guests.” He also
likes to move objects around, especially toys. On the 3rd floor we
were able to capture with the infrared camera: lots of orbs, an audible moan, and a
couple of shadow apparitions; one of which we believe to be Zeke, since the shadow
appeared after we asked for Zeke to appear. Zeke was quite active for a few
minutes with lots of orbs present, Zeke’s shadow apparition also floated across
a painting, peaked out from behind door and danced up down.
On the 2nd
floor we were able to see the blood stain from Charles Lemp’s suicide on the floor with the infrared
camera. On the second floor we saw lots
of orbs; they seem to be very attracted to Sean! We also recorded a low moan in
William Jr.’s room. Maybe just coincidentally, but when we asked for any entity
to show themselves, an alarm went off in one of guest rooms and we recorded
orbs floating around the alarm. Also on the second floor, Rivika and D.W. both experienced
a perceived change in the barometric pressure-with both of us getting a
headache or shortness of breath.
Going down
to the 1st floor, the K2 meter and the ghost box immediately went off at the same
time when we reached 1st floor stair landing. We checked, and no electrical
outlet or wires were causing the K2 meter to light up. As we then moved down to
the basement, the K2 continued to be lit up, as if the entity was following us around. At one point, the K2 stopped any reading of
activity. The basement was basically pretty quiet except for the K2 going off again
on the stone steps leading to the outside. It is interesting to note that when
we went back up to main level stair landing, the K2 did not light up in the same
spot it did previously.
Overall it
was a very exciting investigation and we would go back again. It was very cool
to purchase the infrared video and review our investigation. And we are now looking
into purchasing our own infrared video camera for our next investigation; November 1 at the Beardstown, Ill Opera House! As
side note, when I started to write up this VAPR blog post, I had the Ghost Radar
turned on and the word “vapor” appeared….
