Beneath one of St. Louis’s grandest Victorian homes, the Lemp Mansion, lies a honeycomb of limestone tunnels locals call the Gates of Hell. The Lemps built a brewing empire on those caves, using the natural cold to store lager and turning underground passages into private theaters, a bowling alley, and even a heated pool. Above ground, their Western Brewery and Falstaff label reshaped American beer and poured money into a thirty three room mansion that became a symbol of Gilded Age success.
Inside those same walls, grief and scandal took root. Sudden deaths, financial collapse, and a chain of suicides turned the house into a monument to ruin. Add in whispers of a hidden child in the attic and decades of reports from investigators who hear footsteps in the caves long after closing, and the Lemp story becomes a perfect Missouri entry in 50 States of Folklore. This episode walks the tunnels, follows the family’s rise and fall, and asks whether the true gates of hell are beneath the mansion or behind the locked doors of its history.
