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.

Milwaukee's City Hall

Local designation, to me, holds the foundation to what preservation is. It all starts somewhere, and though a building might look boring or not be that historically significant, some person needs to find a site deemed important to get the ball rolling. The system works wonderfully that way. Not only do you have people seeking out preservation, but also then it gets handed to another group to validate the actual importance of a site, place, or object. Section 106 creates this great underlining barrier between government and the people. It arbitrates, based off of checks and balances, between the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the people to seek to preserve. Section 106, as well as other sections like 4F, is a great way to give enough power to the government but only if it is understood that the public has a voice. 4F reassures that the Department of Transportation doesn’t disrupt the preservation process to any building that is on the National Historic Preservation List or meets the guidelines to be on it. This provides many people to stand up in time to preserve a place that has yet to be approached for whatever reason. It is vital that the designation to public opinion remains to be a strong component in order to save what exactly is important to America and its people.

A building such as Milwaukee City Hall has many factors contributing to the preservation status that it holds. Located on 200 East Wells Street, this wedge-shaped building was built by Paul Riesen and Henry C. Koch. Koch won a national competition to build this unique structure, marking a German style exterior to represent the heritage of the city as well as creating a dramatic contemporary interior to compromise with the oddity of the shape that the building held.
1861 marked the permanent location of the City Hall, but it was not initially foreseen that way. Where the Market House stood, City Hall found itself in need for expansion because of the rise in population in the city. But since there was a massive dispute between east side’s Juneautown and west sides Kilbournetown the building, where it stood, was sought to be the best location. It was then built between 1893-1895 with preservation renovations happening 100 years later. Notable was the renewal of the front tower clad with a copper exterior in 1973 as well as in 1969 the masonry was repainted and repaired.
I feel that the historical significance as well as the architectural aspects of Milwaukee’s City Hall makes it definitely a great candidate for preservation. The architecture is very important to the 19th century German style and it reflects what “German Rathausers” (city halls) looked like. It is to be noted that German settlers were the first among many to settle in Milwaukee, so the historical reference is very romantic. Also, there is the little detail that this specific City Hall has been the primary location of Milwaukee’s government, still housing the Common Council Mayor’s Office, the City Clerk and the City Treasurer. The usefulness of the City Hall should also be eminent. There has certainty been a nice balance of up keeping an establishment that functions but doesn’t interrupt the right of the people with tourism and the gimmicks that tourism could bring. It also continuously celebrates it aesthetics, as a reminder that the look of City Hall is just as important as why it is there. So the preservation of Milwaukee City Hall, to me, is an overall good thing in the category of preserving what is true to this city.

Historic Preservation Study Report: Milwaukee City Hall, 1982. Web 12 Sept. 2011.

http://www.city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityHPC/DesignatedReports/vticnf/CityHall.pdf