Continuing a somewhat regular Christmas tradition, my father and I took a drive on the holiday out to look for more remnants of the Lemp estates out along the Meramec River. We returned to our search for more ruins or other structures left from Cragwold, Edwin Lemp’s estate, one of four beer baron estates in the vicinity.

You can walk up pretty close to the house, due to a previous owner’s mistake of being too generous in his donation of land to the City of Kirkwood. The broad meadow that rises up to the top of a ridge is in Emmenegger Park, even though it looks like it should be part of the privately held house’s grounds. No trespassing signs make it obvious where the property line begins, so you can get pretty close to the house to see its interesting architecture.

While there were barns at Cragwold, this one is not historic to the game farm, where Edwin raised animals for himself and some for donation to the St. Louis Zoo, where he was a great patron.

Ruins in the woods, to the south, are perhaps some trace of the original barns or pens.