Adolphus Busch and Busch Mausoleum, Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum Historic Tour Line Stop 29

Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum is a key cultural institution in St. Louis, offering visitors a beautiful atmosphere for exploring history, art, architecture, and nature. We have a 3.7-mile newly painted white line to follow while in your car, on your bike, or on foot for your self-guided tour. An interactive map is available on our website, or you can find a paper copy outside of our office doors highlighting 38 historic stops along the white line.

Stop 29 on this historic tour belongs to Adolphus Busch and the Busch Mausoleum. Born on July 10, 1839, German-born Adolphus was the 21st of 22 children. Even at a young age, he was bound for success in the beverage industry as his family ran a wholesale business of winery and brewery supplies. In 1857, at the age of 18, Adolphus came with three of his older brothers to St. Louis, MO. He married Elise "Lilly" Eberhard Anheuser, the third daughter of Eberhard Anheuser, on March 7, 1861, here in St. Louis, MO. They had 13 children; eight sons, including Adolphus Busch II, August Anheuser Busch I and Carl Busch, and five daughters.

Adolphus Busch eventually entered his wife's family's brewery business. Adolphus bought out Eberhard Anheuser's partner, William D'Oench, and in 1879, the company was renamed Anheuser-Busch. At the death of Eberhard in 1880, Adolphus became the leader of the business. He envisioned a national beer with universal appeal. Adolphus introduced numerous innovations, building the company's success in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He pioneered the pasteurization of beer so that it could be kept in rail-side icehouses and shipped in refrigerated rail cars throughout the country without a loss of quality. Busch pioneered bottling beer in glass bottles and founded the Busch Glass Company to assure a steady supply of bottles to his brewery business. He purchased the trademarked name "Budweiser" from Carl Conrad in 1891 for his product. His successful brewing business allowed Adolphus and his family to contribute to many philanthropic activities, using his vast wealth for education and humanitarian needs. He had suffered from dropsy since 1906 and died in 1913 while on vacation.

Lilly Anheuser's parents had built a mausoleum at Bellefontaine Cemetery, but she felt that Adolphus needed something grander. She tore down the original structure and had the other family members reinterred outside. She had Thomas P. Barnett design a new mausoleum in the Bavarian Gothic style. Constructed using unpolished red Missouri granite and completed in 1921, the new building cost $250,000 (equivalent to $2.8 million today). The mausoleum has a gray-green slate roof topped with a copper spire, ornate finials, and engraved grape vines representing both Adolphus' birthplace in German wine country and his favorite beverage. The bronze doors are topped with hop flower embellishments. The structure features elaborate stained glass panels, and thus resembles a small church. Julius Caesar's words "Veni, Vidi, Vici," or "I came, I saw, I conquered" are inscribed above the entrance. Lilly died of a heart attack and pneumonia on February 17, 1928, in Pasadena, California. Her body was brought back to St. Louis and was buried beside her husband.

Please watch this short video to learn more about Adolphus Busch and the Busch Mausoleum; stop #29 on Bellefontaine Cemetery’s historic tour. Sign up to receive more information about the history of Bellefontaine Cemetery. https://bellefontainecemetery.org/vid....

To make a gift to the Friends of Bellefontaine, you can call Cara Crocker at 314-381-0750, or you can donate online in three ways:
✅ On our website, https://bit.ly/BCA-Giving
✅ Using VENMO, @FriendsofBellefontaineCemetery
✅ Using PayPal, [email protected]

📷 - Wikipedia, findagrave.com, tripadvisor.com, the Anheuser-Busch archives, and Bellefontaine Cemetery archives.