Indiana Ghost Hunters: Would You Tour This St. Louis Mansion With a Dark Past?

What started out as a lavish family mansion and one of the biggest breweries in the midwest, eventually turned into the sight of several deaths, and would become known as one of the most haunted places in America. Ever heard of the Lemp family?

The history of the Lemp family is tragic and certainly lends itself to stories of ghosts, spirits, and hauntings. The story goes all the way back to the 1860s when the Lemp mansion was built. A decade later the Lemp Brewery was in full swing and had become the largest brewing company in St. Louis. Before long, the good news would come to an end for the Lemp family. The brewery would be closed by 1919 and by the end of the 1940s, seven members of the Lemp family (and one family dog) would be dead, several by suicide, all within the walls of the mansion.

Lemp Family Deaths Through the Years

• 1901 - Frederick Lemp dies at age 28 under mysterious circumstances.
• 1904 - William Lemp, Sr. commits suicide in the family mansion.
• 1920 - Elsa Lemp Wright (Willam's sister) dies after shooting herself in the heart.
• 1922 - Willam Lemp, Jr. dies by suicide in the family mansion.
• 1943 - William Lemp III (William Jr's son) dies from a heart attack at the age of 42.
• 1949 - Charles Lemp (William Jr's brother) commits suicide in his mansion bedroom after shooting his dog in the basement.

These days, the Lemp Mansion has become a restaurant and inn, serving fine dining, renting out rooms, and hosting various events. But when you're considered by many to be one of the ten most haunted places in America, you have to give people what they want - ghost tours and details of the mansion's haunted history. You can reserve a spot in one of the weekly ghost tours and decide for yourself if the stories are true.

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If you're looking for a different kind of scare, you need to head to the Lemp Brewery, which has been transformed into a more traditional 'haunted house," you know, the kind where you pay to walk through a building and have people jump out and scare you.

I'm not sure if I really believe that someplace can be haunted, although I know people (who aren't crazy) who claim to have seen and experienced some pretty unexplainable stuff. I can tell you that I've never personally experienced any kind of haunting, and I have no desire to. You go right ahead, though, and visit the Lemp family - in whatever form they may be - and you let me know how it goes.