Name: Wabasha Street Caves closing in November, another victim of the coronavirus pandemic
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Wabasha Street Caves closing in November, another victim of the coronavirus pandemic

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By | Pioneer PressAfter nearly 27 years of entertaining guests and hosting gangster tours, the Wabasha Street Caves will be closing at the end of November.The three-cave complex on Wabasha Street in St. Paul has been a lot of things in its long history, but for the past couple of decades it has been owned by Steve and Donna Bremer of Faribault, both now in their 70s, who transformed the sandstone caves into a thriving destination for locals and tourists.“We have been closed since March 18, and with the fear of COVID-19, most of our tours and events for 2020 have canceled,” Donna Bremer wrote in a recent email to customers and vendors titled “Hardest letter I have ever written.”“We are expecting the same will be true for this summer’s public ‘Historic Cave Tours’ and ‘Saint Paul Gangster Tours,’ so with much regret and lots of tears we are going to be closing,” she said.The Bremers bought the venue in 1994 and remodeled the 12,000-square-foot space with brick walls, stucco ceilings, a carpeted dining space that seats 200, a theatrical stage, a hardwood dance floor and a 60-foot bar.The Wabasha Caves hosted several themed events, such as “Swing Night,” and a murder mystery dinner with improv actors called “Tommy Gun Trouble.”In addition to being a meeting and party venue, the caves also hosted “Down in History” tours which offered various historic themes, such as gangsters, ghosts and the Victorian era.The caves were chiseled into steep bluffs by silica miners in the mid-1800s. When the miners left, there were seven inter-connected caves extending at least 150 feet into the bluff along the Mississippi River. The caves were used for growing mushrooms for many years.In 1933, William F. Lehmann and his family, who owned the caverns, converted three caves into the Castle Royal nightclub, which featured a mock-Tudor facade across the entrance.The nightclub was a hangout for prohibition-era gangsters, who were entertained by performers such as Cab Calloway, Harry James and the Dorsey Brothers Band.The Castle Royal closed in 1940, and the space was used for storage for many years. In 1977, new owners spent $500,000 installing an art deco motif, and once again the Castle Royal was in business.But five years later, financial difficulties forced it to close. It reopened in 1987 as The Library, a nonalcoholic nightclub for teenagers, but closed a short time later.The Bremers said they will honor any private tours and hope to offer some public tours throughout the summer and fall.“The last 27 years have been an adventure for our family,” Donna Bremer said. “We have been blessed with the greatest employees, who are like extended family to us! We feel sorry we have to end this during a time of uncertainty.”For updates, visit the website at .We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.Sign up for Newsletters and AlertsFollow UsMost PopularClose

By | Pioneer PressAfter nearly 27 years of entertaining guests and hosting gangster tours, the Wabasha Street Caves will be closing at the end of November.The three-cave complex on Wabasha Street in St. Paul has been a lot of things in its long history, but for the past couple of decades it has been owned by Steve and Donna Bremer of Faribault, both now in their 70s, who transformed the sandstone caves into a thriving destination for locals and tourists.“We have been closed since March 18, and with the fear of COVID-19, most of our tours and events for 2020 have canceled,” Donna Bremer...

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Deanna Weniger

Twin Cities news, sports, politics, entertainment and business from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota's first newspaper.

Wabasha Street Caves closing in November, another victim of the coronavirus pandemic

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