Brewers house in Marine Villa

[franillaice]

Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster. I’ve been fascinated with St Louis’s history since I moved here 7 years ago. Breweries, therefore all the caves that come with, and the vast amount of beautiful brick homes still all around us. I recently moved to the MV area last year and of course re-ignited all my fascination with Lemp and English Cave. I’ve never explored anything bc I’m a chicken shit, but I would absolutely love to if someone would be interested in meeting. I wish I would have moved to St. Louis sooner! Seems like they were a lot more lax a decade or so ago. Several of my neighbors have lived here all their life, and I’d love to know what it was like here back in the day before they cared about sealing things up!

Anywho. I came across this house a month or so ago and it has a one of a kind vaulted ceiling in the basement! Supposedly it was the home of one of the master brewers in the area. But the agent didn’t know his name and said he brewed for Lemp.... which just seems like the simplest answer for this area, even tho there were several other breweries around (and Lemp wasn’t yet!) This house is also on the 1875 pictorial map! Which is wicked cool. There was a bricked up doorway in the basement that the realtor said “ I promise that isn’t a secret entrance to a cave” again- anything these guys will do to sell a house, amirite? I thought this might be a fun opener to introducing myself. Anyone have any idea who’s house this would have been? My research skills are decent, but I’d love any info anyone is willing to share. Side note- I’ve read Lost Caves (love) and I’m reading 200 years of brewing right now.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... B1xtgZZgB2

[PANIC! on the Titanic]

Hey there Franilla, welcome to the forum. I think you will find the hunt for Stl caves to fascinating and frustrating! A most excellent pastime I must say.

I found the house you posted to be quite interesting, and fell down a rabbit hole searching for info about it. The description given by every real estate site ever is pretty frustrating, as it doesn't give much other than "a former brewmaster's house." After some sniffing around through an 1860s city directory, I found a guy named Ferdinand Seamen.

Note he is listed as a brewer. Now, this description is pretty vague; was everyone who worked at a brewery at the time considered a 'brewer?' Also, Cahokia street makes the corner with Kosciusko (then 2nd St), and Carondelet Av is now S Broadway, which is pretty far away. I can't pinpoint him to any one address here, and this is the closest I can get so I'm making big assumptions since that's the only brewer I can find on that block at that time. Probably going to need some library time with this one.

In either case, the 1898 Whipple fire insurance map of the structure shows no cave or anything. Usually these maps will have "cave" or "cellar" or something indicating the presence of one.



But, looks like there's nothing here. A lot of times in these old houses, bricked up doorways and walls used to be entrances to root cellars or some other unused sub-basement space. My old house is from 1898 and has a root cellar which currently hosts the furnace and stuff, but is mostly just dirt and some bricks laying around. No cave there either

[Chris]

There is another brewer's house with a single, long arched cellar that was listed in Carondelet several month ago.

This one looks like more of a "vaulted basement" than a separate, deeper cellar. But it's still incredibly cool.

[franillaice]

Thanks so much for the reply PANIC! It’s tough to get real answers from real estate agents. That’s so fantastic digging! I’ll have to research him.

[PANIC! on the Titanic]

Yo Franilla, you got a PM waiting!