a detailed look at 14-story pabst building's interior ornamental ironwork executed by winslow brothers

a collection of seldom seen detailed lithographs or half-tones showcasing the original custom-designed interior ornamental ironwork executed by the winslow brothers for solon s. beman's non-extant 14-story pabst neo-gothic style commercial building (1891) located in milwaukee, wisc.

the images were scanned from a rare winslow brothers company periodical entitled "ornamental iron." the winslow fabricated metalwork for the majority of chicago's late 19th and early 20th century buildings by architectural firms including, but not limited to, adler & sullivan, burnham and root and holabird and roche.

original ornament (i.e, copper-plated staircase baluster and bower-barff elevator fragment) and the images from winslow's 1891 "ornamental iron" issue courtesy of bld. 51 archive.

building history:

the pabst building was a 14-story neo-gothic style commercial building (1891) designed by architect s.s. beman as the headquarters for milwaukee beer baron frederick pabst. it was the city’s  first skyscraper and the tallest building prior to the completion of milwaukee’s city hall, completed four years later in 1895.

the building was demolished in 1981. the 14-story was built with brown brick and heavily ornamented with terra cotta. the building featured a massive granite stone arch entrance and copper tower with four-sided clock. upon completion, the building was described as being romanesque revival, neo-gothic with flemish details.

the building’s roofline underwent several damaging alterations in the 20^th century, including the removal of the copper towers that crowned the top.

further reading:

ADLER & SULLIVAN'S CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE FEATURED IN JULY 1894 ISSUE OF WINSLOW BROTHERS'S "ORNAMENTAL IRON"