Have you ever wondered about the story behind one of America’s favorite beers?
If you drink beer, you’ve probably tried a Pabst Blue Ribbon at least once.
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The sometimes unfairly maligned lager is actually one of America’s oldest beers and remains one of its most popular, according to YouGov, some 170 years later.
Loved as a cheap drink but shunned by beer snobs, it’s undergone a modern renaissance over the past 20 years.
Today, about two million barrels of PBR are produced annually, according to investor publication 24/7 Wall Street.
It’s all a far cry from when Best and Company Brewery was founded in 1844 by Jacob Best as a small operation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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In 1859, German immigrant and former steamship captain Frederick Pabst—commonly known as Captain Pabst—married into the Best family, becoming a partner in the brewery four years later.
Despite knowing nothing about beer – he preferred to drink wine – under Captain Pabst’s direction, by 1872, Best had become the second largest brewery in the country, producing 100,000 barrels a year.
In the 1890s, Captain Pabst was the equivalent of a billionaire in today’s money, owning a grand hotel in Milwaukee and a summer estate where he rode horses.
So what unites the iconic drink with a creepy, haunted doll and an elevator with a tragic story?
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The US Sun visited the Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to discover the surprising story behind its PBR.
Milwaukee, which recently hosted the Republican National Convention, is famous for its beer and cheese.
And nothing goes better than a cold PBR and a serving of piping hot cheese curds.
Beer giant Pabst’s ties to the Midwestern city date back more than 175 years, to the mid-19th century, when Milwaukee was at the height of its wealth and power.
Tucked away in the city’s western suburbs, a few miles west of downtown, sits a lonely reminder of Milwaukee’s grand past.
The impressive Pabst Mansion, one of the finest examples of Gilded Age architecture in the city, is the only remaining building of its kind on a street that was once lined with similar luxurious homes.
Built in the Flemish Renaissance style in 1892, the mansion would have been surrounded by many homes belonging to Milwaukee’s rich and powerful.
But as industry abandoned the city after World War II and Milwaukee’s elite moved ever closer to Lake Michigan, the neighborhood quickly fell out of favor, and so this incredible piece of America’s history was one step away from be completely destroyed.
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Our visit to the Pabst Mansion offered a glimpse of a time when Milwaukee was at the height of its power, an important site of industry and commerce in the American Midwest.
Everything about the 20,000-square-foot mansion screamed luxury and wealth.
Built over two years for $254,000 – which in today’s value would be about $8.7 million – the three-story mansion was the home of Frederick Pabst and his wife Maria Best.
The captain filled the house with souvenirs of his German roots, from paintings of castles in his beloved homeland to specially made tiles he had shipped across the Atlantic.
Frederick and Mary’s granddaughter Elsbeth lived in the house after their daughter Elizabeth’s death from illness, and she had her own room in the mansion.
As they were also scared of losing her, they replaced the doorknobs in her room with glass ones, which they believed were more hygienic than metal – something we now know was completely wrong.
Elsbeth’s old doll, Charlotte, remains in her room to this day, her haunting eyes seeming to follow visitors around the room.
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The house is full of small, intricate features that point to the family’s brewing heritage, including hand-carved wooden hops on the banisters and a huge fresco titled “The Art of Brewing” featuring drunken nymphs brewing beer.
And what trip would be complete without a visit to the gift shop?
Visitors can purchase every conceivable type of Pabst merchandise, from hoodies and t-shirts with the iconic PBR branding, beer soap, beer candles and even dog chew toys made to look like Blue Ribbon bottles.
Despite his traditional appearance dating back to the Old World, Captain Pabst was an innovator obsessed with having the latest technology.
There were special doorbells in every room where the family could call the servants, and the house was the first private property in Milwaukee to have a telephone – which visitors can still consult today.
It was also the first private residence in the city to have electric lighting and heating – powered by the same generators that powered the nearby Pabst brewery, although when beer production ceased, the house was plunged into darkness.
A big fan of music and also a family man, the Captain had a very old record player and a piano installed at home, where his loved ones would gather.
The house also had an electric elevator that Frederick had converted into Milwaukee’s first private elevator, although, tragically, the captain never got to use it.
He died in 1904 from complications caused by diabetes and emphysema – which were not helped by a lifetime of smoking and enjoying rich foods.
The family sold the house four years later to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and it would be the home of successive archbishops for the next seven decades.
This likely spared the house from bulldozers or collapse due to neglect, a fate that befell many other fine properties nearby as the neighborhood fell into disrepair.
However, it was lucky when it was sold in 1975 and was almost demolished to become a parking lot for a neighboring hotel.
Fortunately, it was spared, and in 1978 it was turned into a museum, preserving this crucial piece of America’s Gilded Age history for future generations.
If you’re in the city of Milwaukee, this is a must-stop on your tour, but be sure to raise a PBR for Captain Pabst later.
For more information about the history of Pabst Mansion and to book your excellent tour, visit their website Pabst Mansion website.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
