Pabst Mansion: a jewel in the rubble

While visiting the Pabst Mansion, one of Milwaukee’s oldest jewels, I started to recognize why some things should just stick around. The Pabst Mansion is a prime example of beautiful architecture and there is historical significance to what the mansion stands for. Today the mansion stands in the middle of a University campus, but back in the day it was surrounded by many mansions and homes that were much bigger. To the left there is a corporate apartment building and to the right there is a dormitory, which makes the building look like it is swimming in a sea of modern day housing. Being the only standing and kept up historical building on what is now Wisconsin Avenue, it is sad that we continue to demolish places that were once important and preserve buildings that are not.

Granted most of the old mansions and homes on old Grand Avenue were dying, not being tended to, and not being sold. But when we go back to the beginning of the semester, when we spoke about the Marriott and the old Down Town Books building, it is strange what has been decided to stay and what has to go. Especially for a run down building in the middle of down town Milwaukee, why is it important to preserve structural integrity while it was never kept up in the first place? How the Pabst Mansion still stands is pure luck.

I was glad to see that the mansion’s interior was treated like a museum. The museum aspect of the Pabst was the best way to handle its preservation. Anyone can now come and enjoy or learn about how this miraculous building survived such hard times. The restored settings such as the bedrooms and the kitchen are great tools to continue understanding what life was like in the past. There is little we don’t already know about the historic past of the city, but the act of restoring mansions and homes give more knowledge into economics of the time.

Restoration I believe is the most important thing that the mansion stands for. Besides the historical significance the building holds, there have been bigger strides to restore even the smallest details back to the original state the mansion stood in. It was remarkable how the restorers at the Pabst Mansion could even tell what the original trim patterns rooms would have after countless layers of paint over the top of it. Also, not to mention the attempts to bring original relics and furniture back to the home. Such things like paintings, hanging lights, and even drinking horns have all been brought back or else, after careful studying, replicated by like objects.

The importance of museums like the Pabst Mansion may seem to be for the kicks of looking into a historically famous persons home. Not unlike Mount Vernon, the Pabst is cherished for its beauty and prestige. More importantly the mansion is celebrated for its survival in Historical Milwaukee. The historical significance doesn’t just lay in the home itself, but also the representation of the rest of Grand Avenue, a street that died faster than it was born.