For most of us East-Siders, St. Louis is like our second home. We go to the zoo; to the Science Center; to shop, to see Cardinal, Rams or Blues games; we often dine in the city's fine restaurants, and many of us work there.
Missouri has more caves than any other state. It is a well-known fact that much of St. Louis is built on top of a complex network of natural caves and human-made tunnels. According to "Ripley's Believe-it-or-Not!", no other city on earth has as many caves beneath its streets, sidewalks and structures. The caves are estimated to have numbered around 50. Many of the old breweries used caves for lagering and storage purposes. Some of these had stairwells installed, beer gardens built, and they became popular nightspots for locals. Breweries stopped using beer caves when artificial refrigeration was installed in brewing plants.
The Anheuser-Busch Brewery cave was discovered in 1852 by a German brewer by the name of George Schneider. A soap baron named Eberhard Anheuser gained control of the Bavarian Brewery there around 1857. He formed a partnership with Adolphus Busch and the rest is history. The Anheuser-Busch Brewery was built on an old Indian settlement site called Petite Prairie by the early French settlers. During the Civil War, arms and munitions from the arsenal were hidden in the cave to keep them from falling into the hands of the Rebels.
Cherokee Cave, in South St. Louis, was first discovered by brewer Adam Lemp, of the family famous for its suicides and haunted mansion. In 1945, a pharmaceutical manufacturer bought the property above part of the cave that had an entrance on Cherokee Street at South Broadway. He built a museum building that served as an entrance to the cave. While in the process of digging a passageway, workers unearthed the bones of an extinct peccary (wild boar), dating back hundreds of thousands of years. Also discovered were the bones of an extinct armadillo that was much larger than the common Texas armadillo. These bones were displayed at the museum, which opened in 1950. The cave was connected to the part that contained the old Lemp Mansion underground swimming pool and theater. The cave never became a big attraction and closed around 1960.
In 1961, the Missouri Highway Department collapsed the cave entrance and demolished the museum in preparation for construction of Interstate Highway 55. The old Dr. Nicolas DeMenil mansion, located nearby, was also scheduled for the wrecking ball, but preservationists convinced authorities to spare the historic building.
Dr. William Beaumont, a St. Louis surgeon, owned a large tract of land that had a cave. It was bounded by Locust Street and Washington Avenue. The land was bought by the Uhrig family, which owned a brewery business on Market Street. They enlarged the cave, lined it with brick to prevent seepage dripping, and connected it to others that were nearby. Then they installed a narrow gauge train that brought beer to the Uhrig Cave from the factory. During the Civil War the cave became the headquarters for the local militia and Home Guard.
In the 1850s, the Uhrigs built a beer garden and began offering cave tours. After the war, the beer garden was expanded into a small theater entertainment spot. By 1884, the cave was under the ownership of Thomas McNeary. He and his brother built a stage and installed seating, converting the cave into a vaudeville house. They also installed the first electric lights used in any St. Louis place of entertainment.
When the McNeary's lost their liquor license, a syndicate bought the land and built the Coliseum on top of it on the corner of Jefferson and Washington. The grand opening was in 1909 and over the years, the venue hosted evangelist Gypsy Smith, horse shows, circuses, and the Veiled Prophet Ball. Other performers of note included Enrico Caruso and John McCormack. Evangelist Billy Sunday once held a revival at the Coliseum. In 1916, the Democratic National Convention was held in the building. Bill Tilden played tennis here and Johnny Weissmuller swam in the "world's largest swimming pool," built in 1925. The pool could be covered with removable flooring when arena space was needed. Wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis even had a championship bout here in 1927. In 1928, nominee Herbert Hoover delivered the keynote speech at the Republican Convention held in the great hall.
The Coliseum began to decline after the Arena was built in 1929 and Kiel Auditorium was constructed in 1934. Lack of parking space was always a problem for the Coliseum after the "tin lizzies" became popular in the 1920s. The last event staged at the Coliseum was in 1939 - a wrestling match. During World War II it was used as a storage facility for new cars that were "frozen" by government orders for the duration of the war. The building was demolished in July of 1953.
English Cave could be accessed east of present day Benton Park, bounded by Illinois and Jefferson avenues, Wyoming and Arsenal streets. In 1826, Ezra English built a small brewery next to the cave. He later formed a partnership and built the first subterranean beer garden in St. Louis, complete with entertainment.
Meanwhile, the city built a cemetery nearby and it began filling up as a result of a cholera epidemic. Prior to the Civil War, the brewery went out of business. After the war, the bodies were moved to a new cemetery about a mile south of Jefferson Barracks. The old epidemic cemetery was converted into a park, named Benton Park to honor Senator Thomas Hart Benton.
In 1877, the cave was once again opened up for the purpose of growing mushrooms. In the 1890s, the cave was used by a winery.
Benton Park has a small lake and every once in a while it would lose much of its water, apparently by seepage into the cave labyrinth below. The park department eventually solved the problem by lining the lake bottom with concrete.
Winkelmeyer's Cave was used for brewery purposes by four different companies. Julius Winkelmeyer built a brewery at 1714 Market St., near the western edge of Chouteau's Pond. An ever-growing population soon polluted the pond. Many thought that the unsanitary conditions there led to the cholera epidemic of the late 1840s. Chouteau Pond was later drained, filled and became a railroad yard facility. Winkelmeyer Brewery was eventually superseded by Excelsior Brewery.
By the time Union Station was built in 1894, the breweries there were out of business and the cave forgotten. The cave was sealed in 1933 when construction was done to widen Market Street.
A train tunnel comes into St. Louis from the north. It was built by Samuel Insull, the utilities mogul from Chicago who ran a streetcar line across the McKinley Bridge into St. Louis. Passengers got out underground and walked up stairs to get to the street level near Tucker Boulevard. The tunnel is currently used daily by trains to bring in newsprint for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Glen Carbon resident Bill Nunes is author of "The Big Book of St. Louis."
