I had a rare opportunity to explore the caves beneath the old Lemp Brewery. The only word I can use to descibe the experience is 'AMAZING'! The caves go from the brewery, past the mansion and cut off at Interstate 55. I assume they continue to other parts of the City. I saw the remnants of the Lemp family theatre and swimming pool. They are in ruins, but still somewhat visible. The theatre had a plaster ceiling of some sort which arched over the theatre ceiling. It has collapsed. There is a rusted spiral staircase (as pictured below) from the mansion or Cherokee St. (not sure) to the theatre, where performers would enter. The pool was well defined, but not without someone pointing it out to me. The water was cold and clear in the old pool area, defined by rectangular concrete barriers. Contrary to some rumors, the caves are not flooded, but there are spots with maybe 6-12 inches of water, not even 1/5 of the cave. Other than that, it was very muddy in spots and like any cave you could imagine. Enjoy!

PS_I took several more pics. I will add them when I get a chance.

that's really cool.

now, was it a legal visit? you darn urban explorers.

It was legal...but if I revealed anything further, I'd have to kill you....

Few more pics:

I'm too young to have a bucket list, but exploring these caves is now the first thing on the list.

It's weird to think that so much of St. Louis is built over caves like this. A few abandoned coal mines, too.

Love those pics. It would be nice if those caves were open for low-impact tourism.

I agree opening them would be a great tourist spot
I hav always hoped that when the brewery is renovated(eventually) that someone will renovate these caves to what they looked like during the lemp days especially the movie theater.

When I was in the Caves, I wondered what the impact of foot traffic would have on the Caves, if any. That is a good question for an expert. I did not see any signs of life. No bugs, rats or normal cave animals/organisms. I did see a small amount of litter (beer cans, caps, cig butts), more towards the entrance of the cave. As we got further in, it looked less and less traveled and more like a traditional cave.

Regarding tourism, I cannot believe that someone has not turned this into a major attraction. Not many big cities can boast a real cave system, minutes from their CBD.
I wonder if the liability is too great. Any specialty insurance experts out there?

Regarding restoration of the theatre and pool, I would be for it, if it did not disturb the natural cave. I would be for pictures/replicas of the theatre and pool near the site, so people could see the before and after. I am not sure if any good pics of the theatre and pool in their prime actually exist. Anyone?

Anyone know of any picture of the caves, specifically the Lemp movie room and theatre from back in the day when they were in good condition?

Virginia Publishing has a book called Lost Caves of St. Louis, which I believe has some pics of this and several other local caves:

http://www.stl-books.com/products-page/ ... tten-caves

^I just bought this book a week ago. I'll let you know if it is a good buy or not.

The theater was not a movie theater, it was for live performances. The chamber is not very large either (I have also been in the caves). It wouldn't look like a theater space to you if you saw it today. Also, when we were down there, we saw blind cave fish and crawdads in the streams, so there is an important ecological community surviving down there, but we didn't see any bats. I expect that is because there is no place where they can get out to feed at night. My point about the critters is that the primary danger that humans pose to cave ecosystems is to bat populations (many species are endangered), so re-opening the Lemp-Cherokee system to tourists would probably not disturb the cave too much. One major consideration for re-opening the cave to large numbers of visitors is that because the natural entrances have been sealed, there is very little air exchange between the surface and the tunnels, and areas where oxygen levels are dangerously low. I remember huffing and puffing like I was at high altitude down some side passages and our guide advised us that some tunnels were inaccessible because there was basically no oxygen at all. Ventilation would have to be a primary consideration if the caves were to ever be used again.

Did you carry anything that measured the air quality?

No, Schnucks stopped carrying canaries.

^^^When I was there, I did not see any critters at all. If there were some, I am very disappointed I didn't see them. I wonder why, if you saw some. When were you last in there? I was there in the spring of this year. Regarding oxygen levels, I did not have any issues breathing. Maybe I didn't go deep enough in. I went about 1.5-2 hours in.
I can't imagine it would be that big a deal to pump air through the caves if someone wanted to open them up for tourism. You would be correct on the theatre. It was a vaudeville theater. Likely a stage with a spiral staircase behind a curtain for performer entrance (I'm guessing)and some plaster decor over the roof and walls. I saw some type of metal fixture on the ceiling as well. Not sure what it was for.

It was the remains of the light rack. You are right about the spiral staircase, it went up to a changing room for costumes and makeup on the surface that once sat in the parking lot immediately west of the NW corner of Lemp and Cherokee. The actors would go up and down the stairs and enter the rear of the stage. The oxygen issues showed up when we went down some of the side passages that were not part of the "developed" cave (areas that were not used when the cave was operated for tourists). The cave fish were in the flowing stream; this was probably spring of 2006? I don't think that seasons have much of an effect on cave creatures though, considering it is always dark and about 55 degrees Fahrenheit down there regardless of what it is like on the surface.

I figured that it was a light of some sort, but I wasn't sure about that. I did see some places where signs of electricity were present.

I mentioned when I went down, thinking maybe something regarding living organisms could have changed over several years. I don't know why or how, as I do not know much about the caves, other than going there and basic research. Considering you went 4 years before me, I guess it is possible something changed, but maybe I just didn't go in far enough to see the living things.

Well, they are pretty shy little guys I would expect, and not used to people clunking around. I doubt much has changed. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the water quality was good enough to support aquatic life down there. The breweries needed vast amounts of water for their operations and so pretty much whenever you have a brewery cave, you get a substantial water source as well. The Lemp brewery used the springs that still flow down there for their water source, as did most of the other breweries. The Joseph Schnaider Brewery, for example, of which Vin de Set on Chouteau is the last surviving building, had a major spring that provided water for its operations. After the brewery closed an ice company took over and used the spring for decades. Same with the Winklemeyer and Uhrig Breweries which were where the post office and Union Station on Market are today. Both of them had spring water sources and a major spring called Camp Spring used to be located across the street where Aloe Plaza is today. You know all those are still down there flowing away, probably just dumping into the sewer system and heading out to the river.

I would have freaked had I saw some other living things down there.

It is rather depressing that such amazing stuff lurks under St. Louis, yet few get to see it. So much history and amazing natural wonders wasting away under our great city. On one hand, I would love for it to be available for all to see. On the other hand, maybe the fact that the caves were not heavy toured, has kept them in great shape.
I noticed how clean the water looked, but I didn't know it was spring water. I really didn't want to get too wet, not knowing what was in the water. Obviously I lived, so it must have been very clean. Now the water in the caves and labyrinths under the Falstaff Brewery on Lemp, seems to be contaminated. The pics on Underground Ozarks show a film over the top of the water. I wouldn't want to go near it. Anyone know how and why the caves and labyrinths under the Falstaff Brewery flooded?

^ This thread has nothing to do with partisan politics. Please keep it that way.

I just got the book "Lost Caves of St. Louis" and it does have some great pic in it, including a pic of the theatre staircase when it was more intact. I will scan some of the pics and post them when I get the chance.

I noticed a lot of pipes. When the Lemps entertained down there, did they have any ventilation or running water?

I have heard that the caves had electricity before the rest of the city, because the brewery had its own source. I would guess they had any comfort they could