You are here: Real Ghost Stories :: Ghost Tours & Haunted Hotels :: A Night at the Lemp Mansion

A Night at the Lemp Mansion

By msmeghan2
Date: 2006-11-06
Country: United States
State: Illinois
Paranormal Category: Ghost Tours & Haunted Hotels

 

I spent a memorable night at The Lemp Mansion with my cousin, Cindy. It was memorable for me, because of the activity. Memorable for Cindy, because it firmly cemented in her mind that she would never return.

We stayed in the Charles Lemp suite. Charles was the last of the Lemp family to take his own life in the Mansion. Stories have circulated that he went downstairs and shot his dog then returned to his bedroom to shoot himself. This is not true. He shot himself in the morning, on his bed. He was the only member of the Lemp family to leave a note, and the fourth to commit suicide. Three in the Mansion and a sister in her home in another St. Louis neighborhood. Charles stated that when found, 'blame no one but me'. He left word that his last remaining brother, Edwin, was to have his body taken immediately, without any further preparation, and have it cremated, and to bury the ashes on his farm in St. Louis County. The burial spot of Charles Lemps' ashes will never be known. After the death of Edwin, all Lemp papers were burned along with valuable artwork and other items as requested by Edwin of his groundskeeper.

The night we stayed in Charles' suite, there was a party in the outside gazebo that lasted until around midnight. All other suites were occupied for the night, so any investigation we might be able to do was limited. We did wander about the house and took some photographs, did a little EVP work and took some video film. There was nothing remarkable. At around 1:00 AM, we decided to call it a night. I set up my video camcorder, which is not equipped with night vision, on a small table at the entrance to the room, pointing it toward a corner where there was a little light coming in through the window from outside. The guest table was set up in this corner and it included a coffeemaker, muffins and an ice bucket filled with ice, wine and orange juice. My reason for setting up the camera was to use it to record audio, as my tape recorder would make a rather loud "click" when the tape was finished, and the camcorder would simply shutdown after two hours. I did not expect any video to be useful.

I was sleeping peacefully for about an hour, but awoke when my cousin began to move around. She was hot in the room and finding it difficult to sleep. We spoke for a few seconds, and I drifted back off... but not for long. Almost immediately I was totally awakened by the sound of the ice in our ice bucket being literally tossed into the sink in the room. It was very loud. I asked Cindy, "What was that?" She replied, "I think it was the ice". We could both see the bucket sitting on the table and knew it had not moved, but there was no mistaking the sound we heard.

After awhile, I was able to sleep again, though I don't believe Cindy ever did.

When I reviewed the two hours of video tape the next day, I noticed that the little light that came in through the drapes began to distort after awhile. The camcorder self-focuses, and I assumed it was trying to do just that. Gradually it began to get more and more distorted. I continued to watch it, and reached the point in the tape where Cindy and I awoke just before the sound of the ice. There it was, on the tape, the recording of the ice being thrown into the sink. I was delighted to have caught it on tape! It was loud and sounded exactly as it had the night before!

I recorded a copy of that portion of the tape onto DVD to keep it safe. It was a very exciting night and a very good catch for me. I since returned to Lemp and spent an hour closed up in Charles' room alone, attempting to record EVPSs through asking questions, but was unable to get a response.

I will not give up. I continue to visit Lemp and will continue to try to contact Charles Lemp every chance I get. I recommend anyone who can visit this top haunted America site to go!

I haven't uploaded the video yet. I have another video from Lemp on youtube that is basically a walkthrough with downstairs dining and upstairs. Then I walk around the upstairs corner to the corridor that leads back to the old vault door, and there appears to be a man at that door, or on it. I have posted it on TAPS and some thought at first it was a man who stepped out of Charles' Lemp's suite, but that man looked out and then left through the main hallway door. The door is painted black, it is a bit shiny and it is worn in places, but it's still very interesting, because it is at Lemp. I have made quite a study of the Mansion and it's family. I consider them very special. I plan to "master it" and those who lived there. I know it like the back of my hand, and even though the man at the door seems easy to debunk, it is still strange. Anything can happen at that house. I will add my youtube link. The video I talk about in the story is hard, because I am having audio trouble on my computer and without it, the video isn't worth much. But I got some of the problem solved, and it may be my program for retrieving video from my camera. I am working on it.

True ghost stories with similar titles

Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting.

tips_leadinvestigator (9 posts)

2009-02-24

I have actually done an all night investigation at the Lemp Mansion back in August of 2007. My team and I had several personal experiences as well as a few documented experiences. We are returning this summer to investigate some more. The Lemp Mansion in St. Louis Missouri is, in my opinion, one of the most haunted locations in the country. If you come to the Lemp in hopes to see a ghost, I promise you the Lemp Mansion will not let you down.

mustang (5 stories) (714 posts)

2008-01-09

Hi FRAWIN and Buffy. I definitely agree with your theories or thoughts, whatever you want to call them (my brain is in such a fog because of a sinus infection that I have had for several weeks and the Zethromiacin is making me very ill. I am eating with the antibiotics but I finished my third and last pill two days ago and still feel messed up!) Anyway, back to the subject and hand. FRAWIN- I do think that they are making alright money but sometimes it's just not enough. Everything is WAY too expensive! It's really ridiculous. Plus he has a stay at home wife, right? I guess it also depends on where you live and how much things cost. Down here in Florida, it is very expensive to live here! Being that my husband and I have four kids, we really need to live where Buffy lives. In Indiana. I read in my Parent's magazine a long time ago that that is one of the five states that they named to be the less costly place to live. I would literally DIE if I did not live two minutes from the beach/ocean. All I have to do is take the Veterans expressway and I'm there in literally two minutes. And that's only ONE of the beaches we live near. I mean I could and would live somewhere else if I had to. I'm not pampered or anything. I was born here and have never lived anywhere else and really never want to. I would get so homesick. I remember in 7th grade when we went to Alabama to visit my Grandmother, God rest her soul, for part of the summer and I got really homesick, There are LOTS of places I want to visit though.

Have either of you seen that show "Ghost Adventures"? It's pretty cool! There is two episodes and it hardly ever comes on and when it does, they are repeats!


Buffy- I have seen Haunted Hollywood and I have the "Haunted America" BOOK but I don't think that I have seen it.

Hey guys? For the past three or four days I have been having visions while laying in the bed, kind of like half asleep but not and they are really happening? Also, for the past three weeks, or maybe less, I have been hearing little children while everyone is asleep and it is usually at night. On top of all that, I have been seeing weird, shadowy things or little blinking lights, like your story "Fireflies" story Buffy. This all has been happening since I have been sick. I haven't been trying to tune in to my abilities, it's just happening. I'm thinking that since I've been sick that maybe either something is keeping an eye on me or that my mind is more open to the paranormal/otherside because I haven't been busy around the house and the kids have kind of been fending for theirselves, except for the things they absolutely need me for. That's how 'poopy' I feel. When I stand up I get really nauseated and dizzy like my equalibrium is off or something. So what I'm getting at, is that maybe I am more open minded to the paranormal because of not having so much loudness in my house or my head for that matter. The kids have been kind of quiet for a change because they know that I'm not feeling great. Trying not to take over this page, but, what do you guys think about why all of this is happening? I have a clue but not concrete, and other intelligent minds and opinions would be much appreciated?!~Shelby

FRAWIN (guest)

2008-01-08

Hey Shelby, Ghost Hunters is one of the highest rating shows on "cable'" and if you think that they don`t get a tidy paycheck off of the show, well do you want to buy some oceanfront property in Tennessee. Just kidding Shelby but really do you think that they can go to all the different places, film all the shows and still have time to run a Roto Rooter business? And what about their crew, Bryan, Steve, Tango and all the others, do you think that their employers let's them have that much time off to go ghost hunting? It just seems to me that they should come out and say, yes we have a roto rooter business but we are having someone else run it for us because we are making too much money on the show to worry about stopped up toilets. Plus we get so much from roto rooter for plugging it on our show. It seems to me that if they "lie" about one thing, what else are they lying about.

FRAWIN

mustang (5 stories) (714 posts)

2008-01-08

Hey guys, ghost hunting doesn't pay and the t.v. Show probably does not pay much! ~Shelby

whitebuffalo (21 stories) (2856 posts) moderator

2008-01-05

Yeah, FRAWIN, I do think they are still working a roto rooter. I saw it on the t.v. It HAS to be true!

FRAWIN (guest)

2008-01-05

Hey whitebuffalo, do you really think that Jason and Grant, after having one of the highest rating shows, really unstops toilets as a day job? I know that I wouldn`t.

FRAWIN

melonlover (3 stories) (50 posts)

2008-01-05

You know TAPS? Well what is it, some kind of ghost hunting show because we don't have it in England. We have like Most haunted. Anyway I want to ask you, Why were there loads of people there that night anyways? Spooky Melonlover

To publish a comment, you need to be logged in (use the login form at the top of the page). If you don't have an account, sign up, it's free!

© The ghost story A Night at the Lemp Mansion is copyrighted to msmeghan2. Edited by yourghoststories.com.