Designed by Frederick Wolf and Louis Kledus and opened in 1876 (just missing an appearance in Compton and Dry), the Schnaider Malt House is a remarkably well-preserved example of a late Nineteenth Century brewery building with most of its structures left intact. As the Sanborn Map below shows, by 1908, its purpose was only to produce malt, which was then used in Schnaider’s now-demolished brewery proper across Chouteau Avenue. Like Schnaider, Anheuser-Busch and Lemp (as well as other larger breweries) did that themselves in large adjacent buildings, but many breweries did not, and there was a considerable market to produce the sensitive product by itself–in fact, the Griesedieck Family produced did just that at certain points, selling it to small breweries that lacked the capacity to do so themselves. It seems Schnaider’s functioned by itself, as well.
The Whipple Special Risk Map is also a wealth of information, showing us the floorplan and appearance of the malt house in 1878.
Since malt houses contained malt kilns, which of course had open flames, they had to be built to be very fireproof, as Building B is labeled.
The subject of a stunning and beautiful renovation, the malt house is now one of the oldest substantial brewing-related buildings in St. Louis; only some structures at the Lemp, Anheuser-Busch and Cherokee Breweries date back as old as Schnaider’s endeavor.
The brewery is now long gone, but it was standing by the time of Compton and Dry.
The Special Risk Volume 4 again has an image of the floorplan and an isometric drawing.
Schnaider lived nearby at 1423 Hickory Street.
Jacob Schnaider Residence, 1423 Hickory Street, Collection of Missouri History Museum, N34285