The Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion

A great walk back into time. Very nice to see how people took pride in what they built. Both quality and detail. A must see when in Milwaukee.

Had a very nice visit to the Pabst mansion today and learned a lot. Even though the tours are self guided in the winter, there were three staff in the mansion who were answering questions and providing tons of information! The house is incredibly beautiful — so many amazing details. Currently, it is decorated for Christmas, which is also beautiful but… Each room is decorated by different volunteer groups so they are very different and some don’t really seem authentic to the period of the house, so it is a little odd. The $ 13 admission is perhaps a bit much, but there is lots of free parking nearby so it’s not an expensive visit overall. The staff were really nice and took time to get to know the visitors and answer questions about their interests. Truly a beautiful house — such a shame the family only lived there for 13 years!

This was one of my favorite things during our recent trip to Milwaukee. The mansion is located walking distance from downtown Milwaukee on the edge of Marquette’s Campus.
From the outside, the mansion looks pretty average. But once you get inside its absolutely amazing. A full-​guided tour is an absolute must. Everyone meets in the gift shop. The cool thing about the gift shop is that the building was actual built for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and was relocated to the mansion after the fair. The actual tour is only a few dollars and there are plenty of times to go.
I don’t want to spoil too much of the surprise of going through the Mansion yourself, but I was thoroughly impressed with the restoration of the property. As you go from the first floor (completely restored) to the third floor (early stages), you can see how the mansion has changed over time and how the restoration process works.
Two quick tidbits:
1. All of the rooms are laid out exactly how they were over 100 years ago since Frederick Pabst paid a professional photographer to take pictures of every room. That is how they are able to restore it with such quality and precision.
2. Most of the furniture is original and ALL of the furniture on the first floor is original from what the family used in the 19^th century. This is because after the family sold the Mansion in the early 1900’s, the Catholic Church purchased the property and all of the furniture was put into storage for all those years.
Keep your eyes and ears open. There are a lot of cool facts and secrets about the house to learn.

This is a must see place in Milwaukee. The Pabst family was a good family to the community of Milwaukee. This museum has a small entrance fee, but once you are inside the mansion you don’t mind the cost. The tour guide is very committed to relating the importance of the mansion and the family, pride radiates through their voices. I grabbed the early tour and it was not crowded and smaller in size.

Very cool house. Our guide was very well informed and fun. It’s an amazing look into the past. Well worth the cost.

Went there for a wine tasting, which was so totally awesome. Also went to the regular mansion tour which was pretty sweet too. It’s a neat old place, well restored, lots of history. especially if you’re into Milwaukee stuff.

Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, the staff was very accommodating and welcoming, and the tour itself was very entertaining and we learned a lot! I would definitely recommend this to anyone that wants to experience a bit about the history of Milwaukee!

Awesome tour with a great tour guide. Bought a Groupon for this place which made it totally worth it. $ 6 a person!!! Hard to beat! Our tour guide as well showed us all the ins and outs of the mansion. Every room in every floor. We got to see it all. The entire tour itself took a little over an hour but we never felt rushed and I don’t think there was anything we didn’t get to see.
The tour talked about the history of the Captain and his wife, their kids and grandkids and what not. There was a lot of original artwork and furniture throughout the mansion which was impressive. Amazingly big house with a lot of secret compartments for liquor and books and anything else you can think of.
Highly recommend the tour. They had a cute little gift shop area as well, which is where the tour began and ended. Great way to spend an hour or so, which for us was on a Sunday afternoon, learning about Pabst and the other, more personal side of him.

My husband I truly enjoyed touring this historic mansion. Our guide (Peter, I think) was very knowledgeable and willing to answer any questions our group had. He was also very considerate of one in our group who needed assistance. This mansion is still being restored so it was interesting to see how they do the restoration. A great story is being preserved here.

«A must see!» Well, yes. It is. The Pabst name is now infused into the history of Milwaukee and never having visited the city before, I thought this would be an important first stop (after visiting Anodyne Coffee).
What a beautiful glimpse into the life of a true «self made» man and his family. Our tour guide told his story with a reverence and a love that was very special. As a fan of history and genealogy, I appreciated her approach and willingness to answer specific questions about some of the finer points of the mansion.
A tour of the Pabst Mansion is highly recommended. Even the story about how it passed from the family to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee and finally to the preservation society. That process was equally fascinating.
Some wonderful sights to see in Milwaukee. Place this one toward the top of your short list!

This is a must visit! The mansion is unreal and the gift shop is loaded with cool things

This is a beautifully restored mansion of Captain Fredrick Pabst. The tour takes approximately 75 minutes with knowledgeable staff weaving tales of how life was lived by Captain Pabst and his family.

From a historical perspective, this experience is worthwhile. From merely an intrigued Milwaukee resident, it was underwhelming. Over 90 percent of the house is restored or replica and you are not allowed to see more than 50 percent of the house. For almost $ 10, you travel to two of the four levels of the house and are guided by a scripted tour guide.
Again, if interested in the history and life of Captain Pabst and his family, it’s for you. If not, check out the actual brewery.

If you’re looking for a bit of Milwaukee heritage, some sweet architecture, a beautiful historic site, or just a place to hang out for a few hours in Milwaukee, I totally recommend the Pabst House.
While they understandable don’t want you to touch anything, chew gum, or sit on anything, I would have liked to take some non-​flash photos inside. There were staff all around (watching you) to answer questions or give additional background on the rooms or family history. My fav. was Mrs. Pabst’s room at the front of the house which was for the ladies only — and is so glamorously decked out in pink it is crazy!
(While there could be several improvements to the overall experience — without damaging the house or anything inside of it — I still give it 5 stars because it is a gem!)
PS — The gift shop has little Pabst and Milwaukee gifts, and there were brochures for hosting events on both on the grounds and in the house.

Boring mansion, if this is supposed to be great I suggest you check out the mansions of Newport Rhode Island. However the lady doing thevtour tried her best to mske it fun. Because of her I have the extra start

We saved this one for a cold day and today’s forecast made that possible. We arrived just in time for one of their hourly tours (given on the hour, for about an hour). Our tour was very large, something I’m a little leery of when viewing something in limited space. Larger groups can limit what you see, but this was the only drawback of the tour.
Mansions of this size can look run down and dis-​interesting from the outside. Not the Pabst Mansion. The home is well preserved on the exterior with a great deal of ornate detail. But it’s the interior that you have to see. I’m not one for looking at old furniture etc but the interior of the home has a fascinating history (kudo’s to our tour guide) and has been expertly restored where needs be. We were also amazed at the number of items in the home that had never been replaced, and stood the test of time.
If you go look at this house you’ll get about 5% of its value. The tour is really the other 95%…and worth every cent.

My husband and I went on this tour today — actually, at my husband’s request! We’ve done endless tours of old homes in the US and Europe, and I think the element of the Pabst mansion that really stands out is how random the décor is. There’s not only the fact that the rooms of the home are in various stages of restoration and replication, but also the family’s original design choices. Is it Victorian? German? Rococo? Alpine mountain lodge? Why not! There’s money to spare! It’s worth the tour just to see some of the wacky juxtapositions.
As others have said, they’ve only been working on restoring the home since it was almost torn down in the 70s, and they have some big plans in the works. When you can end the tour on the fully restored summer beer garden — hoo boy! For now, it’s still interesting…

LOVED every second of this.
The tour guide was called in because the tours were getting up to about 40 people each and they wanted to split them up. I’m glad we got our tour guide, whose name escapes me at the moment. He was very knowledgable and engaging.
I love history & Pabst, so I might be biased. It was super fun learning about Captain Pabst and how he helped Best/​Pabst become what it eventually became. The house is amazing… very forward thinking for those times when it was built. The architecture and wood work is beyond intricate and gorgeous. The tour was about 90 minutes I think, and worth every cent of the $ 9 you pay. We even donated a little more after the tour.
I was loving Milwaukee before our visit here, but this definitely sealed the deal. This is a must see if you are visiting MKE, especially if you love PBR and history.

We were in Milwaukee in November for a wedding. We toured the Pabst Mansion on a Friday afternoon and it was a fabulous time.
Our tour guide was amazing, the gift shop was fun and it was a great way to kill an afternoon.
I definitely recommend this site-​seeing opportunity to anyone visiting Milwaukee! There were 8 people in my group and my Grandpa (who can walk just fine, but has a harder time climbing stairs) opted not to go up to the 2^nd and 3^rd floors of the mansion. They do have a small elevator, but the mansion isn’t overly handicap accessible.
Leave the kids at home if you’re planning to take this tour. I’d also stress that there is a decent amount of standing on your feet and walking involved. Could be difficult for those who aren’t very mobile.
Great history here that’s totally worth the $$$.

Oh my, I wish I had the credibility to write a review since we didn’t get in (due to our flight was an hour away by the time we decided to come here.)
HOWEVER! 4 stars to the wonderful people at the gift shop/​admissions office. When we came in, we didn’t realize that it was a group tour vs self paced tour. The price is right and the tour, they said lasts about an hour or so.
I was a bit fidgety due to our time constraint, but also at the fact that photography is not allowed inside. However, the outside building was impressive, and again, the people inside definitely makes us want to come back … which we will, and we will definitely make more time to come back to this place.