>> his famous comment i would rather be right than be president, i think still speaks to us. it's a clarion call to people all across whatever we're doing. whether we're in politics or something else is to do the right thing. heal said, you know, that in a sense, that politicians need to remember their country and sacrifice for their country. i think that is still something that we need to remember as well. >> also this weekend, we'll feature the history of wichita as part of our visit to the largest city in kansas. american history tv, this weekend on c-span3. frederick pabts was born 1836 in saxny, germany. seeking a better life his family moved to the united states in 1848. eventually ending up in milwaukee. frederick pabs worked his way from cabin boy to steamship captain on the great lakes. in 1862 he married maria best.

soon after he purchased half of the small best brewing company. by the 1890st, the renamed pabst brewing company was the largest lager brewery in the world. next a visit to the restored mansion of the beer baron pabst. >> the exterior of the mansion has been restored by several restoration campaigns that sought to bring back more of the original details that had been lost over the decades. the large spires on top of the house were recreated base ds on original photographs after the original ones had been destroyed by lightning early in the 20th century. when this house was one of the highest points in the neighborhood. recently we've returned awnings back to the front elevation of the house. something that hasn't been seen on the pabst mansion for over 100 summers. so we're very excited that this kind of brings back a level of

authenticity not only to the exterior of the house, but actually shades the interior, keeps us cool and also protects our objects within the mansion. when clas designed the exterior of the mansion they were creating something that was iconic in milwaukee. the use of the phlegmish renaissance revival style with its gables and spires was something that hadn't been seen in milwaukee, but once captain pabst used it in 1890, it was then applied to the milwaukee city hall in the mid 1890s. and then even into the latter part of the 20th century when our frontier airlines convention center was built used a modified expression of that architectural style. the pabst mansion is 20,000 square feet. the pabst family was only using

about 8,000 square feet. the rest 12,000 square feet was actually used by the servants. that was servants area around the house. so when i'm asked by people over the years why these houses didn't survive, i think that's one of the key reasons they were never built to be used as single family homes without a huge staff. pabst family has about 12 to 15 servants indoor and outdoor day help and live-in. so it was a very large and kind of sophisticated staff. the family had their butler and their maids and their cook had actually stayed with them for a tremendous am of time almost the entire time they were in this house. so there was this interesting congeniality between the pabst and their staff and it's reflected by kind of the

ornateness of the servants' quarters of the house. i've been in quite a few house museums and stately homes and i've always been struck that how kind of charming the pabst mansion's servants quarters are. this is the servants' dining room. this room and i have had a very personal connection because in my mid 20s i volunteered to strip all of the white paint in this room. and every wood surface in here had about five layers of white paint. what i thought was going to be a three week project, actually turned out to be a 14 month project. and i'm surprised i actually wasn't kicked off the property during that entire restoration. but the restoration project actually restored a sense of balance to the mansion that they thought so much of their staff that they would actually create such a magnificent space for

them to work in. and this particular room being their dining room, they would have spent a fair amount of time in. all of the tile is original and hand painted. each scene it seems to be the same tile repeated over and over again. the cloud or the shipper castle are in different positions. so it really is truly individually hand painted. when we were doing the restoration to this room, we realized you know that there had been a stencil pattern on the wall. that was recreated based otn original photographs. after it was on the walls it was mimicking the three tulips in the tile work as well. so we started really thinking about so much time and effort had gone into the decoration of

this room. it was pretty extraordinary. captain pabst loved little turns or phrases. and so as a way to motivate his staff and it's worked for me all these years as well. he had these stain glass windows created for the servants' quarters. unfortunately only three of these windows survive. only i'd love to know what the other seven windows said, but the one on the left which i had to look at for 14 months while i was working on the restoration of this room drove me crazy. states, a good attitude is half the work. it's true. and the one on the right was originally placed near the rear entrance to the house. and that states that as the servants were going out to deal with the daily vendors for meats and produce and that one states buy with your eyes open. they're very practical. but they are worthwhile to

remember as well. this is the butler's pantry. our butler's sink with it traditional tin basin. which all of the crystal and the china and the silver would have been done at this sink. the metal sink would have absorbed a plate or glass being dropped in it far more than our soap stone sink in the adjoining room. a lot of these items, this wonderful limoge fish service have been donated to us. quite a number of these items are actually family items now which we're excited to be filling our butler's pantry with original material from the family. behind this door was the house safe. so all of the silverware and important papers of the

household would have been kept behind this door. and this was one of 18 points around the house that actually had a battery powered burglar alarm hooked up to it originally. again, that was just another one of those things what the pabst had incorporated into the house that was kind of this burgeoning technology. for those things that were less valuable and more edible, we had the tin line pastry safe right here, which breads and cakes and that sort of thing would have been kept relatively fresh with the tin lining. we're very fortunate that this house, a victim of constant modernization over the 20th century, and in that sense it's probably fortunately that the pabst family had left the house in 1906 because we know that they kept updating things during

their ownership. one of the things that has remained which is extraordinary is our three compartment icebox system. which the archdiocese very smartly had mechanical refrigeration added to it in the 1930s and 1940's. they didn't bother tearing out all of these things. they updated them and incorporated them into the household. now this was a very happy find. i had accidentally spilled paint remover on this particular panel which had been painted probably about ten times. there was a tremendous amount of paint on it. so slowly this green color started revealing itself and we started scraping away and we found this wonderful, absolutely pristine enamelled porcelain panel that was original to the sink and had not been visible in

decades. and this is the original kitchen sink with this huge soap stone basin that's all original. it's just one huge block of soap stone. the original working kitchen was eliminated in 1980 because it had been updated so many times and a modern elevator was put into this space that originally had the kitchen in it. it was actually a very small room. it was much like a galley kitchen that had a 12 burner hotel stove and a couple of small pantries. and so that space was eliminated. but it always made me laugh that there were three sets of doors from the kitchen into the house. and there were two reasons for that. the most obvious is that they did not want heat from the kitchen to go into the more formal rooms of the house.

but also cooking smells. the victorians were obsessed with allowing -- with not allowing cooking smells to emanate into the room. and the pabst daughter who had built a large house in germany we have her letters to her architect requesting a very tall chimney to vent the cooking smells out of her kitchen and her house. it's interesting how now we think of it as being homey and what makes a home are the cooking smells and obviously during this period it was considered extremely vulgar. well now we'll leave the servants quarters of the house. before we do, we'll just pass by captain pabst' elevator that was put in for him. he was a sufferer of emfa see ma. this was put in during his last month of life.

it was completed three weeks after he passed away. this is a single passenger elevator. probably one of the oldest ones still extends in a home in milwaukee. we passed back into the formal portion of the house and then we'll go over to captain pabst' study. which was kind of his quiet retreat and is kind of an intimate nook. so now we're ensconced in what is really kind of this very germanic room that is kind of recalling his earlier life in germany. although, he grew up very modestly on a farm. this probably in some respects represents kind of an ideal in his mind of what someone of his position's home should look

like. all the work in here is walnut and oak designed in a 17th century renaissance design. to give it the appearance that it was 200 years old, 100 years ago but was indeed made here in milwaukee. what's particulary beautiful about this room, certain artists including a milwaukee artist lewis meyer created this magnificent ceiling. all done using zint colored stains to give the effect of inlay. and then incorporating cap taen pabst'' favorite german phrases into the design as well. and so in a small box you have the one word learn over the fire box and then a feeling heart suffers pain.

honor, never found anything more priceless than a quiet and true heart and wait. never soft, never loud what a friend has told you in confidence. those were little pearls of wisdom that captain pabst enjoyed. captain pabst had an excellent sense of humor-for an 1899 party invitation he incorporated a couple of other phrases. a good glass of wine and a good song will keep body and soul young for all time. at the end of the ichb tags. it said got a hongover, then drown it. while he could be very lofty in his ideals as aspirations, he also had a great sense of humor. this compartment over here was actually captain pabst' cig garr humidor. which was extraordinary. he was a big smoker of fine cigars. according to his cash books he spent between $16 and $21 a

month on cigars alone which was almost what he was paying one of his staff members. behind some of these compartments we actually have a secret areas for books and documents which is kind of fun that these spaces exist behind the panelling. the painting over the fireplace is actually very interesting as the original painting that captain pabst had selected to have over his fireplace in this room. it's entitled plowing in saxny by richard lo renz. he was a milwaukee artist who has grown up in saxny almost exactly where captain pabst had grown up. so this painting represents the landscape of where captain pabst was born. this very flat land. and so in many ways this painting pulls this room together because it exhibits were captain pabst began and where he ended up.

so you have this wonderful combination of details, of his german heritage. and also elements of the fortunate that he made in america of which he was very proud to be a citizen as well. and so all of these things put together kind of made up the complex character of captain pabst. we're at the base of the grand staircase. and the -- in the southern united states you would have a pineapple as a symbol of hopity. here we have the hops bud. so we have the hop going up on all of our posts going up the grand staircase. and again this is a wonderful

space that is open and bright and crowned by stain glass skylight. and so this is all carved quarter sawn oak. again, i think this is such an extraordinary point to remind people that all of this was put together in the course of two years. and it's extraordinary to think of all of the craftsman that worked on this house to accomplish all of that in such a short period of time. i always think looking at this magnificent stair hall how could they have possibly built this house in two years? in fact, captain pabst was frustrated that it was taking so long. it's hard to think of the fact that it could have taken even less time to build this house than two years. this little spot right here is called the trumpet tower. while it's more or less an architectural device to kind of break up the stair hall, this

spot was used by the pabst family to keep a large chinese vas. in 1885 one of the grandsons was playing on the staircase above us and decided to dive head forward into the chinese vase that was on the trumpet tower. he ended up exploding the vase and pieces of it shattered and flew everywhere. he broke both of his wrists. but this little spot actually saved his life. as we approach the second floor of the house, as you can imagine these were the private quarters for the pabst family. and into this room this was the regency room. this was the bedroom of their youngest daughter emma. and actually our most recent restoration effort. called the regency room naturally because of the swag and taszle design of the

fireplace mantle. that element is carried out in the silk wall coverings that were replicated for us for this room. and also the original encrusted details in the cove and on the ceiling. this room which had been painted completely white in the 1960's was completely refurbished and completed in just a little more than a year ago. by doing intricate color analysis of the ceiling, using dental instruments our historic color analyst from chicago came up, revealed certain key elements of the ceiling and then mapped out the entire original pattern. once we had the original palette for the room, we were able to transpose those colors down into the room. because of of course all of our photographs of this room in 1897 were all black and white. so using that we were able to

apply color to the silk wall coverings and also in our efforts to recreate the draperies and the bed coverlet as well. the rug was hand knotted for us. and again, brings out all of those decorative details and the color is just very harmonious and kind of pulls together the entire suite of rooms. this is one of my favorite rooms in the house. there's just something about the design and the symmetry that i really enjoy. now when you look at the black and white photographs and you compare the room it's almost completely spot on. so you feel a particular joy when you realize that the restoration of the room was so completely successful that it really heartens you to know that the room will stay like this now

in perpetuity and will hopefully never have to be completely restored again. among the modern conveniences that were included in the pabst mansion were ensuite bathrooms and there were ten of them in the house which is really remarkable. i think about the first generation of contractors that had to deal with electric lighting and plumbing these bathrooms and forced air heating systems. it's pretty extraordinary. but in the regency room bathroom we still have the original bathroom tile and we have the one original remaining tub in the house. and this -- the only reason why this tub survived is it was being used as a slop sink in the basement. so we've had it reconditioned and restored and brought up and will be when we're done with the restoration of the bathroom it

will be all put together again and definitely in a better place than it had been. a number of years ago we had water damage occur in part of the house. which actually was fortuitous because it forced us to take off some of the wood work in one of the back halls. revealing a little section of stencil work that had been in the servants' quarters. we started looking for stencils in less formal portions of the house including bathrooms. so we were very excited to find an original detail of stencil work that was in this bathroom. and so it was revealed so cleanly that we decided to leave a section of that original material and then carry out the recreation of the stencil work from that point. i think that's really important when people come to see a place like the pabst mansion that these are original details that

we're putting back. these aren't just things that we're picking out of catalogs or pattern books. so going out into the second floor hall, this was more or less a drawing room for the family in front of a fireplace, in front of what were then comfortable pieces of comfortable in this hall. the painting that is kind of the show stopper of this particular space was recently reacquired by us and it's entitled "fair well to the homeland." the pabst would have purchased this in the 1880's. it was actually painted in 1856. the decades around when captain and mrs. pabst both emigrated to america from germany. and so this painting in particular would have had such great resonance with both captain and mrs. pabst in that they would have experienced all the emotion of leaving one's

homeland for the unknown. that's what this painting is conveying all this great sadness. however, on the left side of the painting underneath the old varnish, you also have two or three gentlemen having a drink and looking forward and so this is conveying both sides of the immigration story. the sadness of leaving one's homeland, but also looking forward to new opportunities. this is the master suite. in this particular room is the master sitting room. this would have been mrs. pabst kind of inner sank tum and her desk to do corresponds and more so you're seeing something that was like a middle class victorian house dropped into the middle of a very fine guilded age mansion. rather than the silk wall

coverings that their children enjoyed in the other rooms throughout the house, mrs. pabst selected victorian floral wallpapers. they had mismatched furniture from their old house. they had rocking chairs in front of the fireplace. it was much more of a homespun room than any other space in the mansion. this is currently our most recent restoration project. we are seeking to recapture that essence of that homeyness that mrs. pabst wanted for her own private quarters. on the ceiling you can see how all of this ornament had been painted white in the 1960's, but beneath the surface of white paint we're actually finding the original colors. if you look into this laurel wreath on the ceiling, you'll see fragments of the original palm fronts painted on to the ceiling surface. these are all the details that are to be brought back as well

as recreate victorian wallpapers and the victorian drapes that would have been into this space. and so by the end of this project, it will create this very interesting balance between the heavy guilded age rooms throughout the rest of the mansion with this kind of very personal space that the pabst wanted to create for themselves. one of our upcoming restoration projects which we're actually very excited about which does have historical significant is the restoration of the pabst beer pavilion. this is such a great story of captain pabst and his kind of reaching the zenith of his career. the pabst brewing company decided to exhibit pabst products at the world's fair in chicago in 1893. so captain pabst had this amazing pavilion built out of terra cotta and stained glass to

display a 13 square foot model of all the pabst buildings in milwaukee created and burnished all in 24 carat gold. it was very elaborate display. so pabst of course, was submitted into the contest to be chosen as america's finest beer, which it was. and on every can and bottle of pabst blue ribbon today still has the note that this was chosen as america's finest beer in 1893. so with captain pabst with a gold medal in his hand and that's a little secret that there never actually was a blue ribbon. that was a marketing gimmick that captain pabst came up with. with the gold medal, he had the entire structure dismantled, crated up and brought to milwaukee and added to the side

of the mansion. so here we are in the pavilion. so this was -- this was captain pabst's display at the world's fair which anything in 1893. after the fair was over, he had this entire terra cotta structure dismantled, brought up to milwaukee, created into his own private summer conservatory. then converted buy the archdiocese into a chapel. one of the issues that we have to deal with is that the entire structure is made out of terra cotta. within the terra cotta is a 19th century corroding iron structure which unfortunately is breaking the pavilion apart from the inside out. to restore the building we have to take the entire structure down to the foundation, remove that faulty structural support and then rebuild it using original terra cotta blocks and then also recreating the broken

terra cotta blocks in new terra cotta in buffalo, new york. by the end of the entire restoration process, the pavilion will be restored become to what captain pabst enjoyed in the 19th century that small building which has been converted into a chapel and now is our gift shop we're looking to recreate as the pabst pom garden. a tasting room for pabst products at the end of our tour. so kind of bringing together captain pabst business interests, but recreating it as the conservatory that captain pabst always wanted at the mansion for a budget of about $6 million we will have this amazing, amazing recreated space at the pabst mansion. the pavilion itself has actually more national significance than perhaps the mansion does itself