An A-Z visitors guide to Milwaukee Wisconsin. Sponsored by Key Magazine Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/111729
Remembering all things Pabst this month By ROGER STAFFORD KEY Milwaukee Managing Editor IN MILWAUKEE, there are many reasons why the birthday of Captain Frederick Pabst, the city���s original beer baron, continues to be celebrated more than a century after his death in 1904. Consider the Captain���s legacies to his hometown: ��� The Pabst Mansion, completed in 1892, continues to take visitors back to America���s Gilded Age when the Captain occupied a spot at the top of the brewing industry. It���s estimated that the Flemish Renaissance home at 2000 W. Wisconsin Ave. would have cost more than $32 million if built today. ��� Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery, the former corporate headquarters of Pabst Brewing Company, is being meticulously restored by Jim Haertel, who purchased the building in 2001 and turned it into a major visitor attraction. Named for Phillip Best, Pabst���s father-in-law whose original brewery (1844) became Pabst Brewing under the Capt. Pabst, the elaborate headquarters at 901 W. Juneau Ave. was the center of the U.S. brewing industry for decades after the Captain���s death. ��� Although largely empty since Pabst Brewing left Milwaukee in 1996, the complex of former brewery buildings is now being restored and occupied by a new tenants. Scheduled to open later this year is the Brewhouse Inn & Suites, a boutique hotel in the building that once was the Pabst brewhouse. Brewing kettles and a two-story stained glass window featuring King Gambrinus, the unofficial patron saint of beer, will remind visitors of the historic setting. ��� Other former Pabst buildings surrounding the hotel location already have been restored and are now occupied by apartments, offices, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee���s Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health and Cardinal Stritch University���s College of Education and Leadership. ��� The force behind redevelopment of the 21-acre Brewery Works development was Milwaukee philanthropist Joseph Zilber, whose real estate development company acquired the site in 2007. Zilber died in 2010, but his organization continues to develop the site. The Brewery project is just one of the philanthropist���s many contributions to the future of his hometown. Others include major donations to Marquette, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a 10-year commitment aimed at improving the city���s poorest neighborhoods. 26