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Capt Frederick Pabst Mansion
Rating Details »
2000 W Wisconsin Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53233
(414) 931-0808
Milwaukee, WI 53233
(414) 931-0808
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
6 reviews for Capt Frederick Pabst Mansion
I am a tour guide at the Pabst Mansion currently, so I am biased in its favor, but this house museum is a gem. If you are interested in Milwaukee history, architecture, brewing, or just curious to see inside of this intriguing residence, you have to visit. I've been working here for about a year as a scout group tour guide (which means I bring little kids around the house to teach them about the past), and the house is always changing. The restoration process is alive and kicking, and it is very exciting whenever an original piece is returned to the house from wherever it had been lost.
The staff are wonderful and very informational, and the admission price ($10 or less) is a good deal too. All-access tours are available for a bit more, but you get to see the attic and the cellar as well as some other areas that normally no one else gets to go. Very cool! The holiday decorations are a must-see each year too (they are done by interior decorators and are always different).
I really, really, wanted to go here ever since my first visit to Milwaukee, but did not get a chance to until last winter. Dragged my boyfriend and his parents here a few days after Christmas and took a self-guided tour of the mansion, which was beautifully decorated for the holidays. I liked all the rooms especially the Captain's study, with dark wood furniture all around and a fireplace. The Ladies parlor was a bit too...PINK for my taste, but it was still neat to see.
What I liked best was browsing at the Victorian Gift Shoppe where they sold Pabst Blue Ribbon items like t-shirts, mugs, beer glasses and a cool Pabst bottle key-chain light! I would probably not go back to the mansion, but may stop by the gift shop again because PBR rules :-)!
We took a tour of the Pabst mansion recently while on vacation to Milwaukee. It was out second tour in several years and we enjoyed it very much. The Victorian interior is very ornate and simply amazing to see close up.
We really enjoyed the tour and our guide was well informed and provided many details about the history and life of the Pabst family along the tour.
It was nice to see that some original furniture pieces and some of the original paintings owned by Frederick Pabst that were recently acquired and brought back to the mansion.
They are restoring more rooms so more funds are needed to keep the mansion restoration project going. The gift shop is full of goodies to purchase to further support the mansion and it's restoration efforts. Of the 62 mansions that once lined Wisconsin Ave the Pabst mansion is only one of 4 remaining.
I would recommend this mansion tour to anyone who plans on visiting Milwaukee. The mansion is an often overlooked piece of local history that remains virtually untouched today thanks to ongoing restoration efforts. It's like going back in time.
Wonderful mansion! If you're a bargain tourist, they had 1/2 price coupons for adults on their website. At $4 (w/ said coupon) it was a bargain, indeed.
We went on a rainy day, and they don't allow photography inside, so I have no pictures of the place. It was wonderful though. We went on a self-guided tour with the informational pamplet. Whenever we had questions, there seemed to be someone that popped up to answer them and then some. I was delighted by the Captain's reading room with all of it's wood and secret compartments and the painted ceiling in German. Very cool.
Upstairs was another wonder, who can believe that a house buildt from 1890-1892 would have so many bathrooms attached to bedrooms. I can't believe this place was built for a mere $250,000 100 years ago. You couldn't get the wood for one of those rooms for that now. The place is generally intact due to the loving graces and delicate touch that the Bishop and Priests that lived there after the Pabst's moved away in 1906 (after a tragic couple of deaths - there was alot of tragedy in this family - very American Gothic). They changed virtually nothing - other than painting over some of the anaglyptic wallcoverings, which are being restored to their original colours, and obviously, alot of the furnishings went to family members and are gone. But, as the mansion is now in conservatory they are reaching out to many of the people who have Pabst family relics and as those people are passing away, they are donating these pieces back to the Mansion.
There was one particular gentleman who spent a great deal of time with me on the second floor, answering my barrage of questions in depth and giving detailed perspective into the restoration. I wish I knew what his name was, so I could recommend him to you. This tour was greatly worth it, and I will be back again to see the progress in the restoration. It demands repeated visits. (Oh, and the portrait of the woman in the upstairs bedroom is from a family whose own mansion - that was torn down in the 1960's - gah! - was FOUR TIMES the size of the Pabst Mansion. Unbelievable what was there that is gone. So sad.) I also love that the little building that the gift shop is in was moved from Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and up to Milwaukee and added on to the Pabst Mansion. Originally it housed the Pabst display of products at the Exposition and had a full stained glass ceiling.
Go step back in time. You'll be glad you did. And if you live nearby, did you know that you can have your wedding and reception there? What an elegant place to have your fantasy vintage nuptuals.
(edit* I am told the informative gentleman's name is Rikki - please ask for him!)
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A fun, affordable tourist destination. Until this tour, I had no knowledge of the Pabst family philanthropy. I also was surprised and saddened to learn that many mansions once lined the same street, but were demolished. The place is lavish and beautiful...a must-see for Milwaukee tourists!
