This interview will be on “St. Louis on the Air” over the noon hour Wednesday. This story will be updated after the show. You can listen live.
Sunday morning brought “devastating” news for BWorks, a nonprofit that teaches children bicycle safety and provides them with a free, refurbished bicycle at the end of the program. Part of the Lemp Brewery, where the organization was storing roughly 700 bikes, had partially collapsed — leaving nearly 80% of BWorks’ inventory under rubble.
And for now, none of the bikes will be of use to the organization, causing a major setback.
On Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, BWorks board president Wayne Brinkman will join the show to talk about how the organization is planning to continue their bicycle safety and maintenance program.
The portion of the Lemp Brewery complex that collapsed Sunday was the oldest above-ground component of the entire operation. Dating from the early 1870s, the building housed enormous kilns and was expanded in the 1880s with three more stories stacked atop the original three.
Local writer Chris Naffziger has researched the architectural history of the brewery in depth for St. Louis Magazine in recent years, with a particular focus on this fireproof building in a January 2018 article titled “The Lemp Malt House was built to be functional -- and beautiful.”
We’ll also talk with Naffziger about some of the inner beer-dynasty workings that went on there long before it became storage space, and about the significance of the broader complex as a whole.
Have a question or comment about the collapse of the Lemp Brewery? Tweet us (@STLonAir), send an email to talk@stlpublicradio.org or share your thoughts via our St. Louis on the Air Facebook group, and help inform our coverage.
Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio. 9(MDA3OTgyNDI4MDEzMTM0MjQzMTZlNDI0Mg004))
