Built for an heir to the Pabst Brewing Company on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, this Beaux-Arts classical house epitomizes the dignified grandeur preferred by America’s early-twentieth-century millionaires. One of the first mansions in Milwaukee built entirely of dressed limestone, this features a dramatic portico with fluted Corinthian columns carved from a single block. Even in the most expensive construction of the era, stonemasons usually made tall columns like these in sections. Attention to detail resounds throughout. The entrance has hand-wrought bronze doors and grillwork, casement windows punctuate the lower walls, and a copper-trimmed stone balustrade partially conceals the mansard-roofed third story clad with glazed terra-cotta tile. The interior boasts European-inspired woodwork, ornamental plaster, coffered ceilings, and carved stone fireplace mantels.
Gustav Pabst was Captain Frederick Pabst’s son. This was Gustav’s second house, replacing his first on Highland Boulevard, where he lived next door to his brother, Frederick Jr. When Gustav moved to the more fashionable east side, he chose a lot next door to his sister’s Gothic Revival house (MI158), immediately to the north.