Pabst Mansion

The Pabst Mansion was built for Captain Frederick Pabst, the brewer whose name still sits on bottles around the country, and his wife Maria. The family moved in during 1892 to a house that, with its furnishings and artwork, had cost about $254,000. Designed by George Bowman Ferry and Alfred Clas, it stood on Grand Avenue (now Wisconsin Avenue) among the mansions of the city’s German-American elite. Frederick Pabst died in the house in 1904 after two strokes, and his funeral was held there. Maria died in 1906. The family sold the house in 1908 to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, whose archbishops lived in it for some sixty-seven years until it was nearly demolished for a parking lot. A nonprofit bought it in 1978 and opened it as a museum.

The ghost stories began soon after the museum opened. A volunteer, Marylin Boinski, collected stories until her death in 2009, and in 2010 another volunteer, Brenda Nemetz, surveyed the others, recording doors opening and closing, chandeliers moving, objects falling, a chill breeze and the scent of perfume, which some volunteers have noticed in a granddaughter’s bedroom. The most-told story concerns a labourer who felt watched while at work by a man who seemed to be in charge, and who later identified him from an old photograph as Captain Pabst. Milwaukee ghost-hunter Allison Jornlin told OnMilwaukee that candles kept falling off a candelabra while an event was being set up, until staff realised it was the captain’s birthday. A rumour says that the captain disliked the portrait of himself in the parlour.

Unusually for a haunted attraction, much of the staff is sceptical. In 2022 the museum’s director of operations and curatorial affairs, Jocelyn Slocum, told Spectrum News that the staff did not believe the house was haunted and called it a “spirited house.” A TMJ4 reporter who toured it with director of advancement Morgan Sweet came away with the same verdict; Sweet said that the thing to fear was the age of the electrical system, which she said explained the chandelier flicker, and that candles popped out of their holders because the candelabras were poorly fitted. The museum now runs candlelit evening tours, but it presents the house through its history and craftsmanship.

That cheerful scepticism is useful to the reader. It shows how a ghost tradition can grow around a much-loved house without anyone at the house needing to endorse it: a famous man who died at home, a building rescued at the last minute and a loyal circle of volunteers who know its rooms intimately.

Volunteers, contractors and visitors report doors opening and closing, chandeliers swaying or flickering, falling objects and candles, a cold breeze, the smell of perfume in an upstairs bedroom, and a glimpse of a watching man identified as Captain Pabst.

The parlour with Captain Pabst’s portrait, the granddaughter’s bedroom, the main stair hall chandeliers, and the cellar.

The house features in Milwaukee’s ghost walks and in books such as Milwaukee Ghosts and Legends, and its “Illuminating the Dark” candlelit tours run in October.