it's no secret that St Louisians love their beer and with oktoberfest quickly approaching
raise your pints as we take a look at our rich and flavorful brewing history
hello my name is nathan jackson this is nathan's neighborhood history
on the very southern edge of soulard in and past the thomas allen edition originally there was a
suburb known as saint george which was laid out by st louis's first mayor in that area there were a
lot of underground caves and due to the favorable condition of these caves many of the german
immigrants who came to st louis in the 1840s and 1850s began to set up breweries in this area
by the later part of the 19th century there were many notable breweries and beer barons in soulard
this includes breweries such as the bavarian brewery which later became anheuser-busch the
greezek family even established a brewery here you can learn more about them in this guided tour of
the grease dick dear baron family's house this is the home of lewis oberg he was the owner and
proprietor of the arsenal brewery which was just across the street from what is now anheuser-busch
in 1886 lewis oberg decided to build the second empire style mansion just across the street
from the brewery originally the arsenal brewery featured a logo with an a with a flying eagle
just like the anheuser-busch logo but later on their brewery was changed to louis o'byrd brewery
and they had the flying eagle going through the lewis obert logo loose obert lived in this mansion
for many many years and it remained in the family until his daughters passed away in the 1950s
today it is one of the more architecturally significant second empire homes here in the
soulard neighborhood as you can see up top it has a rounded windowpiece as well as several
copper embellishments all along the slated mansard roof this row of houses on south 12th
street is colloquially known as ripple row and this is because each of the second empire style
row houses has a bay window creating a ripple effect with a row these were built in 1878 and
one of the residents of ripple row in its early days was a guy named anton beck who was head of
the shilling and schneider brewery working in the soulard area also living in the row
was a tobacco baron named joseph schlong st louis at the time was one of the major tobacco industry
leaders in the country with tobacco factories such as christian pepper and lujette and meyer
ripple row is one of the most photographed rows of houses in the soulard neighborhood
here we have the house of henry nicholas and william heil henry nicholas was the secretary
for the green tree brewery and he had this house built here overlooking the mississippi river
a lot of brewers and other wealthy st louisians built their houses in the hills of southern
soulard in order to overlook the river however in 1888 henry nikolas had another house built on 12th
street in the second empire style it features a lot of terra cotta brick work as well as some
stone work and is fairly significantly ornate while he was living here he was promoted at the
brewery and took over as the president at the time he sold the house to william heil who became the
next secretary of green chief brewery william heil had this carriage block installed with his
initials on it at the corner of 12th and sydney is the lion house this house owned by maximilian
j fuhrerbacher is known as such because it was one of the first houses in st louis to display
lion statues out front a fun side note is that the house also included a pipe organ originally
fierbacher had a flounder house at 11th and sydney built in the mid-19th century vernacular style
but as the owner and proprietor of the green tree brewery he became very successful and quickly
upgraded his lifestyle by moving into this large italian eight style house with a cupola at 12th
in sydney it was owned by firebacher until his death when he went to visit germany in the 1880s
unfortunately he would never return from this trip as he died 10 days after arriving in germany
his family continued to live in the house until the 1920s
another significant house of a beer baron was the home of christian marquan forester this home
was originally built in 1872 in the italian eight style and appears on the 1875 compton and dry map
as the brown house it was purchased by forester who was in charge of the hyde park brewery
and also associated with st louis's brewing association which was a conglomerate of all
of the smaller brewers in st louis he bought the house in 1890 and upgraded it to the romanesque
revival style this is one of the largest houses in the soulard neighborhood and continues to be to
this day the oldest of the beer barons houses is the house of rene beauvais who had the house built
in 1854. rene beauvais was a silversmith downtown at the time this area was far out in the country
in 1867 it was bought by william stump who owned the stump brewery this house was still owned by
stump at the time of the 1875 compton and dry maps creation when stump acquired the house it was an
italian eight style home that featured a large cupola and a gallery porch after many years it
was converted into a second empire style house though the mansard was later removed in favor of
featuring a flat roof thank you all for watching make sure you're subscribed so you never miss any
of st louis's rich and wonderful history i'll see you next time on this house all of the information
for this video was provided by nathan jackson the owner of st louis history and architecture
you can find a link to the facebook page for st louis history and architecture down below in
the description st louis history and architecture offers guided walking tours of these houses where
you can learn even more information about their inhabitants and their very interesting histories