When Wayne and I were in Milwaukee last month we visited the Pabst Mansion which was decorated for the holidays. I love visiting historic homes at this time of year to see how they decorate them. Sometimes they decorate in keeping with what would have been done in that time period but the Pabst Mansion's decorations were modern.
Photos were not allowed in the mansion, but were allowed in the greenhouse Pavillion. The Pavillion is part of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 history. I stumbled upon another piece of the history of the great Chicago World's Fair completely by accident! The building is attached to the main mansion and is currently being used as the gift shop. It is in a serious state of disrepair but funds are being raised to restore it.
Construction of beer baron Captain Frederick Pabst's mansion was completed in 1892. Pabst was born in Germany and his parents immigrated to the United States when he was 12 years old. At the age of 14 Frederick signed on as a cabin boy on a Great Lake steamer and by the age of 21 he was a Captain. When he married his wife he took his father-in-law's offer to buy into the family brewing company and the rest was Milwaukee history.
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| restored wallpaper on the first floor |
I was told I could take a few "detail" photos as long as I wasn't giving away what the mansion looked like. While I was interested in the wallpaper and the plumbing Wayne was intrigued with the hand carved wood detail throughout the home including matching furniture. Captain Pabst died in 1904 and the mansion was sold to the Archidocese in 1908 and since the church doesn't tend to put a lot of money into "updating" a lot of the original detail was easy to uncover for the renovation.
When you visit the Pabst mansion during the holiday season you can buy a pass to visit 2 other museums for an additional $5.00. Our second stop was the Charles Allis Art Museum whose interior was nowhere near as grand but had a few nice original details to admire.
Wayne's favorite stop of the three mansions was the Pabst home...but mine was Villa Terrace on Lake Michigan. Wait until you see what was on display!
The mansions of the Victorian rich never cease to amaze me. I suppose the current1% are just as over the top but we aren't touring their homes yet. Funny that they want to make sure no one sees what it looks like without paying. You can probably google it. LOL.
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