St. Louis’ Beer Garden History Goes Back 189 Years, Continues Today
It’s still warm out but nothing like the heat we had in the last week. In the hot summer weather the last thing I want to think about doing is leaving my air conditioned loft and drink beer outside. But in the early 19th century modern air conditioning didn’t exist. In 1823 shade, a breeze, and a cold brew were the best ways to beat the heat:
June 10, 1823: St. Louisans avoided the heat by visiting the city’s first beer garden, the Vauxhall Garden on Fourth between Plum and Poplar. St. Louis is credited with being the first city in America to develop outdoor restaurants and theaters. But it wasn’t until 1854 that the beer garden came into it’s own, when Franz Joseph Uhrig built a garden restaurant and theater in a wooded tract containing a cave for the natural cooling of beer.
The garden, known as Uhrig’s Cave, was at Washington and Jefferson avenues, a site later occupied by the Coliseum and still later by Jefferson Bank. First-run entertainment for all ages was provided, with some of the earliest American performances of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and more serious dramatic pieces. Schnaider’s Garden was another popular spot, providing opera and the music of a grand promenade orchestra. Kuhn’s Brewery, the Lemp Brewery, Cherokee Cave, and Winkelmeyer’s were similar, and all gave the city a pleasant air during the hot summer months. (From the book St. Louis Day by Day by Francis Hurd Stadler)
See my posts on the Coliseum here and Jefferson Bank here. For more info on Vauxhall Garden click here. These old beer gardens may be gone but the tradition continues today.
What was once a parking lot is now a beer garden. Urban Chestnut leased the parking lot next door to their brewery at 3229 Washington Ave. Rather than use the parking lot to provide places for free customer parking the asphalt was ripped up and the beer garden was created. The owner of the former parking lot and building to the east, a high tech firm, will create parking for their employees on the vacant lot across the alley to the north.
I’d like to see more parking lots ripped up and put to better use than in storing cars. Our streets are wide, use the space for on-street parking rather than the land between our buildings. More spaces like Urban Chestnut and we can connect downtown to midtown without interruption.
— Steve Patterson
How’s the accessibility, from your point of view? It doesn’t seem very good, from mine.
From the sidewalk it’s excellent. The gravel isn’t the best surface. I would’ve liked them have an accessible connection between the garden and brewery.
Steve,
Access to Uhrig’s cave is still possible to this day, but you have to enter it from inside the old Jefferson Bank Building on the southwest corner of the intersection.
In the basement of the building, there is a door that leads to the cave. Unfortunately, the cave is controlled by MSD, and is full of ground water, not sewage.
I never made into the cave while I was doing a story about underground St. Louis, due to the watery conditions.
Some high pressure pumps could make it a cool spot to visit. Tourists would love it.
Mike Owens
The creation of a true beer garden at Urban Chestnut is a wonderful thing. Sharing benches with friends and strangers, while you grab a bit of lager, is a great way to stay connected with your community. It is interesting to think that the city used to be scattered with such venues.