effort. the station was really falling down. the post office had been moved to the colored waiting room, in fact, about a dozen years ago when i started working at montpellier, the postmaster had this space as his office, this wire cage was still in place. and where this box of -- of mail slots was, was his little window to speak to the people who came in to the, into the post office. what we decided to do was, the -- montpellier post office was very important to the local community. we didn't want to lose that. what we decided to do was move the post office to the far room of the station which is beyond this wall, which is what was called the freight room. and that's where all of the great from the trains was stored until it was placed on the trains themselves. so it was a big empty room. we moved the postmaster and post

office over there. and we decided to open this up as an exhibit space. the decision to -- whether or not to put -- the white and colored signs over the doors of the train station was, was a very contentious one. we consulted any number of people -- including the african-american historical society here in orange, and a number of consultants, people like roger wilkens, rebecca gilmore-coleman, people in the field of african-american history. i would say overwhelmingly the response we got was a yes. put them back. people need to be made aware of what life was like not all that long ago. there were, however, a number of people who were -- who did not want to seep us put the signs

back over the doors. the jim crow period was a very painful part of our history. a lot of people who lived through it didn't want to relive it. i guess the montpellier foundation, and the majority of the people that we talked to, decided that that, in the end, it was better to show the history than to hide it. people, people stopped me at the mansion. they asked me what, what's going on at the train station. because to see that colored sign over the door from a public highway is shocking to people to day. we have to remember, i think, that's what life was like for the better part of the 20th century here in the american south. one of the unique opportunities at montpellier is our ability to tell not just the story of american history, but really the story of african-american history, from, from beginning to present. the first people that settled at

montpellier were -- were african-american slaves at ambrose madison sent here in 1723. we can tell the story of -- african-american life in slavery through the civil war, and we have the civil war history at montpellier. and then we have the reconstruction era history at montpellier. the story of the gilmore family and progress through late 19th century into the 20th century. the train station tells the story of the jim crowe era through the 1960s. at the end of the 20th century, montpellier becomes a museum open to the public. this is the first time, the late 1980s, really the first time, in american history, when both black and white americans can walk through the home of this past president. we, the people, had come to include all americans.

this program is one of a series featuring james madison's montpellier. you can view all american history tv programs online at cspan.org/history. spend the weekend in wichita, kansas, where book tv and american history tv. saturday at noon eastern. literary life with book tv on cspan 2. american presidents and black entrepreneurs from business in black and white, and, the founding of beach craft in the barn stormer and the lady. brow watermark west's rare books. and sunday, at 5:00 p.m. on american history tv, experience, the old cowtown museum. early days of flight at kansas aviation museum and two participants from the chance civil rights movement, sat down

for service at the drugstore. once a month, exploring the history and literary life of cities across america. this weekend from wichita, kansas, on cspan 2 and 3. american artifacts visits museums. join us for a visit to milwaukee. johan pabst was born in germany. seeking a better life his family moved to the united states in 1848. eventually ending up in milwaukee. pabst worked from cabin boy, to steamboat captain on the great lakes. in 1862 he married, daughter of german brewer, phillip pabst. he purchased half of the pabst brewing company. the renamed company was the

largest lager, brewery. next a visit to captain frederick pabst's mansion. >> i am senior historian for the pabst mansion in milwaukee. in the captain frederick pabst mansion built in milwaukee between 1890 and 1892. and i always look to start a tour of the house with a little context of why it is here. if you are visiting the city you will see the house is sifting, 20th and wisconsin avenue which is kind of in the middle of a very heavily commercial district. it doesn't make any sense why the pabst mansion should be here today. when the pabst family chose this site, the late 1880s, this was in the middle of milwaukee's most prestigious residential district. 50, 60 mansions were lining the avenue from just outside of downtown out to the countryside

at 35th. so, when they built this house, there was already a home standing on the site. so they tore that down. in june of 1890. and began construction of this house. now, the original cost estimate was $75,000. which was a tremendous amount of money considering that people were only earning $400 a year. but when the house was completed two years later, as we go through the house, keep in mind that all of this was put together in two years. the cost exceeded $254,000, which was -- unfathomable to most people. and as you are earning power would have been about $30,000 over your entire lifetime. another thing to -- to be mindful of as you go through the house is that the architects, ferry and clas, local architects, merged their individual firms over the construction of this house. and while, you look at -- the pabst mansion and extra ordinary

attention to detail it is hard to imagine that over 50 other major churches, residences, and commercial buildings were being built by this firm during the same period. so the pabst family took the keys to the house in july 1892. and unfortunately, they had a relatively short period of time in their house. captain pabst died january 1, 1904, his wife two years later, 1906. already by that time, milwaukee's grand avenue, wisconsin avenue was known at that point, was already in decline. people could see that the city was pushing out in this direction. so, real estate values begin to rapidly decline. and, so this house sat on the real estate market for three years before a willing buyer could finally be found in 1908. the archdiocese of milwaukee purchased the house. and that action in 1908, actually saved the mansion.

because for the next 67 years, the pabst mansion remained as the primary residence of five different archbishops. so from 1908 to 1975 this was and continued to be a hope. that's really what saved the house. because, as all of its neighbors were converted into apartment buildings and commercial buildings, and, eventually they were torn down, the pabst mansion became one of the few standing reminders of milwaukee's grand avenue. in 1975, the archdiocese wanted to sell the house. so naturallygentleman who owned the hotel next door to the mansion wanted to purchase the site and did effect a purchase of it in order to tear it down for a parking lot. not uncommon in the mid 20th century. however the house was still in such excellent state of preservation that, that preservation group came together to form a -- nonprofit group, in

order to try to save the pabst mansion. so after a three-year battle to try to save the home from demolition, the group was eventually able to purchase the house. and that was, not without itsen difficulties. because nobody wanted to finance a fledgling house museum in 1978. 23 savings and loans here in milwaukee came together and wrote 23 individual loans for the house. and so, with those 23 loans for $10,000 apiece, and a state grant for the purchase of the house, we opened the pabst mansion for tours in may 1978. now over the last intervening 34 years, we have been going through the pabst room by room, resto restoring to its period of significance, 1892-1906. this room was mrs. pabst's

parlor, the most formal m radioin the house and the least used room in the house. what's interesting about the pabst mansion to me is that this is truly an expression of the american guilded age in that -- american families really kind of taking all the best ideals from europe over a period of 300 years, and compacting them, under one roof. so you have -- each of these rooms expressing an individual architectural thought. so this room -- designed in the french style popular in the 18th century. find itself in 19th century milwaukee. now, we are very fortunate that most of the furnishings and the panelling and everything in this house were done here in milwaukee by the matthews brothers. and so this house while it could have been all import med materis

again was an expression what was capable of milwaukee in the 1890s. we're fortunate when the pabst family sold the house to the archdiocese in 1908, they sold the house with original furnishings on the first floor. so those items have been -- purchased again from the archdiocese. and once again returned to their original rooms. using period photographs, we are fortunate that the pabst family had a commercial photographer come into the house in 1897. he shot, two, three plates of several of the principal rooms in the house. so we have excellent idea of, what was in the house originally. and so we use those photographs today, not only in our restoration work but also with my work with the pabst family to help bring original items back to the house. a great deal of the art work in the collection actually came from a competitive brewer which i think is very interesting. it came from the blatz family.

so the collection, while not original to the mansion, is actually very similar to the german genre paintings collected by the pabst family. many of the same artists are back on the walls of the mansion. and plus we have been augmenting the collection with original works, as they, either come up for sale or have been donated back to us from the pabst family. when we executed the restoration of the room in the early 90s. we returned all the woodwork back to its original enamelled finish with gold leaf. the silk wall coverings you will see behind me were actually remilled for us in leone france, based on the original pattern, evident in the photographs. well as we enter the front hall, this was really a place where your guests would have been wowed by -- by the entrance into the house. and this room was meant to make

the biggest statement. this room which was designed in the german renaissance style of the 17th century was executed in a way which would exhibit the finest work of art in the collection, and, really give a sense of, elegance with this -- with this -- excellent elk antler chandelier in the front hall. this is a bust of captain frederick pabst, actually born in germany in 1836 and had emigrated with his parents, when he was 12. in 1848. they came to milwaukee. milwaukee was such a small town at that point that they felt their chances were better for success in chicago. so they went down to chicago, and that's where captain pabst's mother died in the cholera epidemic of 1849.

so, frederick when he was -- a teenager was interested in a maritime career. so he joined a great lakes steam ship company. as a cabin boy. and then worked his way up to, captain, and soap th that's wha have the title of captain. it was while he was serving, on a ship, on lake michigan in the 1860s that he actually met his future father-in-law who was phillip pabst of the pabst brewing company. he had an eldest daughter, maria. maria and frederick pabst courted for two years and were married in 1862. now frederick pabst enjoyed his career on the great lakes. so he remained a captain for two years until he finally retired and bought an equal half interest in his father-in-law's brewing company for $21,000. again, a large sum of money, especially when one considers we were in the middle of the civil

war. so at that point. he starts his career as a beer baron. but of a very small brewing company, pabst brewing company was making 3,000 barrels of beer a year. he took that company from this, very modest start, to a brewing company that was considered the world's largest lager beer brewing company in the world by 1890. brewing in excess of 1 million barrels a year. heave always retained the title of captain. as kind of a, a friendly m lly reminder of his earlier days, and i think people in milwaukee enjoyed to call him captain pabst. no longer a captain of a great lakes steamer, a captain of industry in milwaukee and milwaukee society. this bust in particular was done by a florentine sculptor, a sculptor arrived in milwaukee in

the early 1890s and found favor in milwaukee society. and he would model his subjects in clay, send the form back to -- to his studio in florence, italy, and then the following summer return with several crates of white marble statues of milwaukee society members. here we have captain pabst. he had found a home in a vermont garden of a pabst descendant for 20, 30 years. now he is back inside in our front hall. we are happy to have him back. at the far end of the hall we have what is known as the musicians' nook. two or three musicians during an evening dinner party could gather in this space and play and entertain the pabst family. situated in the nook is one of the captain's prized possessions. a ceremonial chair, featuring the crest of the ruling family

of prussia, in hand tooled leather situated in the front hall. behind it an extraordinary clock that belonged to blatz, the competitive beer bare roon and donator of art to the house. a clock dating to the 1890s. this 'tis tis the music room. far less formal than the rest of the rooms. this is really where the pabst family would have entertained themselves and also their close circle of friend. what's interesting about the pabst mansion, while a 20,000 square foot house it is a very intimate house. and so, this room that has -- approximately 15 chains are it, actually one of the largest seating areas in the house. they were in their 50s when they built the home. and so, this house was never meant to have huge amount of guests and entertaining.

while they had several large parties. most were done with large marquees on the front lawn rather than having a formal ballroom per se in the house. the two stools at the grand piano are original to the room. and were used for doing -- duets, at the piano. as is the original upholstered furniture, custom built to match the style of the room, 18th century, venetian renaissance revival. this large painting here, was recently, reacquired by us, at sotheby's, a number of years ago. this is one of the original paintings owneded by captain pabst. and had been exhibited actually in australia, in the 1890s, which i found very interesting. eventually made its way to milwaukee, and art exhibition in

189 1898 when captain pabst purchased it. we are excited to have one of his favorite ship paintings over the piano. this portrait of captain pabst, is another original item to our collection. a very fine portrait done of captain pabst. a very fun neap stony story abo painting. catch tin pabst was very excited to engage the artist to do the portrait. as captain pabst was very interested in chancellor bismarck and as limbach had done portraits of bismarck, captain pabst wanted his done as well. he pressed limbach into doing this painting. and as lore has it, which has been substantiated, then limbach was on his way to summer holiday and really didn't want to dupe t -- do the portrait. limbach and pabst mixed it up a

little bit. when the captain took a possession of the painting it was uncrated here in milwaukee. catch tin pabst was some what disappointed it was such a severe portrait of him. and what a lot of people didn't know is that captain pabst had pockmarked skin on his left cheek which limbach had incorporated into the painting. well captain pabst had the painting, dispatched in milwaukee and had it overpainted. nobody was the wiser. until 1990 when the pabst family sent the painting out for conversation in boston and they realized there had been overpainting and had it taken off. revealing the way limbach would have wanted to see the captain, but not the way captain pabst would want him to be remembered. now this room was the scene of -- of the pabst youngest daughter, emma's wedding in

1897. this was the room that they celebrated their christmas holidays, and the christmas tree was kept in the southern bay in this room. and then both, captain and mrs. pabst's funerals took place in this room. for whatever reason the music room was kind of the central point in the mansion. the wall covering, in this room -- is very much a product of the victorian period. and it was a product called lincrusta, still available today. it was made by the same man who made linoleum for floors. you can see kind of this hard, textured surface which was to simulate hand tooled leather but was a material much more resilient that could be easily cleaned. i always like to point out on my tours. we no longer burn tremendous amounts of coal or have gas lights in our homes.

and so, we have to think about the materials they used. glass on the front of bookcases, materials that could be easily scrubbed down and cleaned. because that grit, and that residue would build up on every surface in the house. and so, it's -- it's kind of interesting to to kind of put us back in that period -- when we would have had coal fires going in all of these fireplaces. however the pabst mansion was a modern home of its time. and the house did have central forced air heating in it as well. there were two boilers located, behind the mansion underneath a glass conservatory. so that hot water was brought into the house into a central room in the basement and was regulated with 16 thermostats in different rooms in the house. so you actually got zoned heating, as much as you could, in the, 1890s. moving from the music room into

the dining room. you will see this beautiful, wonderful, bright room. which was always meant to be very sunny in the morning. because the it faces east and really brings out all of the richness of all of the gold detailing in this wonderful birch woodwork. which i have always thought was some what peculiar wood to use in such a formal room. the caramel color of the birch actually works very well to harmonize with all of the gold leaf and the detail as well. this room designed in the french style really is full of exuberance. these magnificent cabinets, again all made here in milwaukee. so i can never stress enough -- just the level of craftsmanship and woodworking detail that was created here in milwaukee. the table and the chairs are all original to the house. and when the pabst family would have been here with just -- themselves, and their

granddaughter, who were -- the most constant residents in the house i should say, the table would have been compacted down to seats, just four. but on more formal occasions the table would be extended with quite a number of leaves to seat 22. so -- when we have done that -- you're either in the hearth or the hall, it takes up the entire length of the room. one of the things that i always found most interesting about this is that this is the largest seating area in the house. so i think that says -- quite a bit about captain and mrs. pabst and the way that they chose to entertain. the wall covering in here is something slightly different than what we have seen through out the house. this was material made in england in the 1890s. a product called time castle. tapestry. this material is actually, comprised of sheets of linen, that are -- have a paperbacking placed on them.

run through a press. dipped in linseed oil. dried. and then guilded. and then the material would come without all of the flowers painted, be installed, and then be hand painted to the way the family or the client would want them. now, the house want through one main your redecoration in 1960. soap the last march bishop that was here, decided to modernize the house. i don't blame him. because by 1960 this house would have been a very dark, dreary, victorian house. kind of exactly what you would imagine it to be in the 1960s. for a house that had been decorated in about 70 years. so a lot of walls, a lot of ceilings were painted white. wall to wall, white carpeting was added. actually even danish modern furniture was put in the front hall of the house. as you can see, a house such as this would rebel against all of

that. so, fortunately, panelling and woodwork in the house was partly painted at all. what you are seeing right now in the dining room is all the original orange shellac finish that would have been put on the woodwork in the 1890s. things such as the wall coverings were hand painted to their appearance. when we removed the mirrors over the fireplace in 1985 we found huge sections of the original material behind that. and so, we used that as our -- our model and guide to have every rose and tulip hand painted back to its original appearance. the ceiling was re-created here in milwaukee by conrad smith studios, using original photographs and -- color analysis, they were able to re-create this renaissance styled ceiling. the light fixtures actually, one

of the few remaining -- major light fixtures in the house. and it indicates that the house was wired for electricity when the house was built. but also used gas fixtures as well. at the top we have -- electric lights. the inner ring of lights are le electric. you can see the key for adjusting the flame. but as added protection, they had a font for kerosene put under the green dome. no matter what light was going to be had at the dining room table. one of the -- interesting bits that i have run across in milwaukee papers from the 190s talks about the pabsts having a party at the mansion in 1897. they needed extra electricity to run several strings of japanese lanterns around the exterior of the house. so there was a streetcar line that ran behind the mansion and

they spliced into the wiring and then ran wires up to the mansion to light their lanterns. i always think of this unregulated electricity that was running around. you know, and the person that they would get to actually do that. this little font was actually a wine cooler. and here we have -- bacchus pouring wine to his cohorts. and so this container could be filled with ice and -- and, and then filled with several bottles of german wine. one of the things that i always look to point out is that, captain pabst was much more of a wine drinker than a beer drinker. when his estate was probated in 1904, the inventory showed there were 3,800 bottles of german wine stored in the cellars doai