Diamond Jubilee: West Town, Milwaukee

On the mainland side of the Milwaukee River lies West Town, the other half of the city's downtown. I passed by this iconic pub on Wisconsin Avenue.

Like many iconic American beers, the Miller Brewing Company was started by a German immigrant. Born November 24, 1824 in Riedlingen, Germany, Frederick J. Miller hailed from a family of politicians, scholars, and business owners. His calling as a brewmaster came in his early twenties. On his way back to Germany after seven years of classical academic studies in France, Miller chanced upon an uncle who was a brewer and decided to stay on and learn the business. After working in his uncle's brewery and learning everything he could, Frederick returned to Germany determined to open a brewery. He leased the royal brewery of the House of Hohenzollerns, but before he could make his mark in the beer business, political unrest and increasing restrictions on trade in Europe led him to immigrate to the United States. Accompanied by his wife Josephine and young son, Frederick arrived in New York in 1855 with, as legend has it, a pocketful of brewer's yeast and $9,000 in gold. After spending a year scouting the country for cities with good access to waterways, as well as the barley and hops needed for brewing beer, he settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As he described it: "A town with a magnificent harbor like that has a great future in store." Frederick bought the abandoned Charles Best Plank Road Brewery in the Menomonee Valley and established the Frederick Miller Brewery. For many years, the entire operation was about the size of a Victorian-era house. Always passionate about his beer, Miller proclaimed "Quality, Uncompromising and Unchanging" as his slogan. More than a beer slogan, though, it summarized his vision for the Miller Brewing Company.

https://milwaukee.millertimepubandgrill.com/about

Although the likelihood of me drinking a Miller beer these days is about the same as sipping some Nescafe, I still admit to feeling pride in the tradition of beer brewing in the US and its historic roots.

Wisconsin Avenue is lined with temporary, changing art as well which is memorialized itself in a mural.

Just down that avenue, I found Milwaukee's central library. It was not open (not sure if it was COVID-related or bad timing), and I later regretted not seeing its reportedly amazing lobby. The facade is modelled on one of the entrances to the Louvre - wow.

A national competition was held in 1893 to pick a design for a building to house both the public library and the public museum. Seventy-four entries were received, including one from Frank Lloyd Wright. The winning design submitted by Ferry & Clas of Milwaukee was for a building one block long and designed in a combination of French and Italian renaissance styles known as Neo-Renaissance. The south facade's colonnade over a base may have been inspired by the east front of the Louvre in Paris. The building was designed in a U-shape to provide a common entrance for the library and museum but to keep the facilities separate. Construction costs for the monumental building, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, were $780,000. In the entrance to the library, mosaic tile floors were hand-laid by master Italian craftsmen who had settled in Milwaukee. Tessera, the small squarish pieces of colored marble or tile, were used in the entrance and in the Art, Music and Recreation Department. The tessera in the entrance floor are smaller than normal, allowing for a more detailed design. Over the years, the building has settled, cracking and damaging the floor and columns. In 2008, a restoration of the mosaic tile floors was begun. Some of the materials used in the interior are yellow Sienna marble, brass and stained glass (lighting fixtures), hardwoods such as oak and mahogany, and scagliola (used for the pillars). The trim on top of the wainscoting in the corridor is called "egg and dart", and is replicated in renovated areas throughout the library. The bay leaf garland design found above the doors in the corridor is actually made of painted plaster, not carved wood.

(Wikipedia)

The library stands as a reminder of what great wealth and civic duty can yield. Such the shame that of those two factors, only great wealth remains.

Wisconsin Avenue ends at a highway entrance: I-43 - effectively cutting Milwaukee in half. On the other side is Marquette University. I considered having a look, but decided instead to stay on the lake side of the highway and turn north. I soon ran into a square, faced with large court buildings. They appeared absolutely massive - Washington, DC-sized.

A little farther along, in a desolate section of town (surprisingly), I discovered the original Pabst Brewery with a portion retained as a small beer hall/museum. A statue of Herr Pabst stands in the courtyard - the man who also built the large theatre I had seen the day before. Again, Pabst Blue Ribbon is not close to being one of my favorite American beers, but after seeing its history, I had a newfound respect for it.

... in 1863, Frederick Pabst, a steamship captain and son-in-law of Phillip Best, bought 50% of Phillip Best, and assumed the role of vice president. In 1866, Best's other daughter, Lisette, married Emil Schandein, to whom Best sold the remaining half of the business. This move made Frederick Pabst president, and Emil Schandein vice-president. Lisette Schandein took over as vice-president of the company through 1894 after her husband's death. Two factors helped position the company for significant growth: the untimely death of Milwaukee brewing competitor C.T. Melms in 1869 due to an infection from a needle, and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Melms' brewery was sold to Best and Company after Melms' death, which greatly expanded capacity for the company. Then, with the fire in Chicago a couple of years later wiping out the Chicago brewing industry, the company was in a position to grow with less competition to worry about. By 1874 Phillip Best Brewing Co. was the nation's largest brewer. The brewery's best-seller was a lager, Best Select, which began public sales in 1875. By 1893, Pabst became the first brewer in the United States to sell more than one million U.S. barrels (120 million liters) of beer in a year.

(Wikipedia)

July 2021

Like the visit to Cleveland, Milwaukee left me astounded at what had been built in a different age. And yet again, I felt "why hasn't anyone talked about this?" Milwaukee is so much more than Richie Cunningham, Fonzie, and Laverne & Shirley.