The Historic Pabst Mansion: Some of the things you won't find on the official tour

All right, now let's get over to our Cassandra McShepard. She joins us in studio tonight. What's going on, Cassandra? Steve, I went to the historic Pabst Mansion, and tonight I want to show you some behind the scene hidden gems, some things that you can't see on the official tour. Take a look. 2000 West Wisconsin Avenue is the address of the Pabst Mansion, but I'm tired of just driving by and seeing it. It's time we go inside. Well, welcome to the Pabst Mansion. So this is the historic home of Captain Frederick Pabst, with the Pabst Brewing Company and his wife, Maria. It was built between 1890 and 1892, which is incredible if you think of all the hand work that had to be done to complete this house in that amount of time. Jocelyn, everybody wants to know these days, how many bedrooms and how many bathrooms? Mm hmm. Yeah. So in the family space, there were six bedrooms and they each had their own private en suite bathroom, which is pretty incredible if you think about how new plumbing was at that time. I'll take you to the dining room now. Oh, my God. This is the original table. These are the original cabinetry which were built. The table and the cabinets were built for the space to match. This light fixture is also original. And what's pretty cool about this house with the other technological innovations at the time is that it was fitted for electric oil and kerosene. When Captain Pabst studied, this looks like something out of a German castle. It does. But this actually was made Milwaukee. This is what Milwaukee could do in 1890. I mean, this room is done up. So tell me about some of the things. I mean, from the ceiling literally to the floor. OK, well, the ceiling has Captain Pabst's mottos to live by. Of course, they were all in German. Streben means to strive. Lernen means to learn. Faltenein means be patient. And Ehre means be honorable. A lot of the house feels so masculine and heavy. This feels girly. This was this was Mrs. Pabst's personal space. It's kind of a French rococo look. This is what would have been going on in all the finer hotels and spas. Is this silk on the wall? This is also silk on the wall. But this was made in France. Now, the original fabric came down in the 1950s, probably. So this had to be reloomed. But it was the same company that made this, reloomed this for us when this became a museum. I have never in my life seen a shade like this. I love it. The company that made them in Lafayette, Indiana, had gone out of business, but there was another company that did it. So we sent pictures and these were recreated to match the original fabrics. I'm feeling a do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do in here. What is this? This is the music room. And this is a grand piano. Now, the Pabst's didn't play piano, but they did own the Pabst Theater. So anybody famous, I asked the kids who they liked, and they liked Ariana Grande. Of course. And I say, well, if she was in town, would you and you were her boss. She's playing at your theater. Would you ask her to come and play? Absolutely, you would. And who would you invite? Well, just about everybody, you know. And so that's why there's two benches, one for the accompanist and one for the singer. And and this was their room for entertaining. Well, she gave all your friends a concert so she could meet Milwaukee Society and Milwaukee Society could meet her. I love the attention to detail that they went back to the company that made that fabric. Yes, yes. And had them remake it. So the exact same thing exists in the room today. The shades, as well as the silk on the wall, was reloomed. You know, Steve, my biggest problem. Yes, was not touching. I am not a look but don't touch kind of girl. I want to go. I would have wanted to reach out and touch that wallpaper. Yeah. No, no. Cassandra, thank you.