The Ghosts of Pabst in Oshkosh

Lately I’ve been documenting the 1890s onslaught on Oshkosh by some of America’s largest breweries (the entire stream of posts can be found here). They came to this city and built bottling plants, distribution centers, and saloons. But almost all they raised has since been knocked down. One of the big breweries, though, left lasting marks on Oshkosh. That brewery is Pabst.

Pabst, known then as Phillip Best Brewing Company, sunk its claws into Oshkosh in the mid-1870s. The brewery’s president, Captain Frederick Pabst, had transformed the Best brewery into the nation’s largest by 1874. Some of that Best beer was pouring in Oshkosh.

The beer was being peddled in Oshkosh by a Doty Street vinegar maker named John Young. Captain Pabst had hired Young to be his Oshkosh agent. Young distributed the Milwaukee beer from his vinegar plant located between Doty and S. Main, just south of 18th. Here’s an 1876 ad for Best and Young.

In 1889, Captain Pabst made it official: he took his deceased father-in-law’s name off the brewery and put his own there. Shortly after, Pabst hired Lorenz Thenee to be his new Oshkosh agent.

Lorenz Thenee was a German immigrant who got his start selling beer in Oshkosh as an agent for the Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Company of Milwaukee. After the Falk, Jung & Borchert brewery burned then merged with Pabst, Thenee went to work for the Captain.

He did exceptionally well. Buoyed by the success of his new agent, Pabst dug in deeper, establishing a distribution center at the southwest corner of what is now Pearl and Commerce streets. In 1896, Pabst went all in on Oshkosh.

Oshkosh Daily Northwestern of February 27, 1896

The block Pabst had grabbed is the triangular plot bordered by Pearl, Jackson, and Division streets. Here’s an aerial view of that property with a yellow tint.

Three months after acquiring the land, construction was underway. The architect was William Waters. He designed a Victorian Gothic style building that would house the Pabst bottling plant and refrigerated warehouse. Here’s how it looked shortly after its completion.

Waters had been instructed to design something that would be a recognizable piece of the Pabst empire. The Oshkosh branch, looked like the Milwaukee brewery in miniature. Here’s a portion of Pabst’s Milwaukee brewery from the same period. Waters certainly hit his target.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the marks Pabst made on Oshkosh were lasting. The old Pabst branch still stands on Division Street. It still looks good.

Here’s a bottle that was once filled with beer at the Pabst’s Oshkosh branch in the late 1890s.

A year after the Oshkosh branch was completed, Pabst was building again. This time it was a handsome saloon named the Pabst Exchange at the corner of 6th and Ohio streets. The Daily Northwestern commented that it looked like a castle. Notice how similar the design is to the property on Division.

Here’s a more recent photo of the old Pabst Exchange. A lot of people around here remember it as Beaner’s Shot & Beer.

For a time, Pabst appeared to be unstoppable. But the Milwaukee brewery was, in fact, far too bullish on Oshkosh.

While Pabst was staking its claim, the Oshkosh Brewing Company was mustering its retaliation. The rise of the OBC would thwart the Pabst incursion here. As OBC ascended in the early 1900s, the presence of Pabst in Oshkosh declined. The point was driven home in 1914, when OBC took over ownership of the showcase saloon at  6th and Ohio.

The Pabst branch on Division Street discontinued its bottling operations in the early 1900s. Pabst maintained the property as a warehouse and distribution center until Prohibition arrived in 1920. Pabst sold its Division Street property in 1925.

Blue Ribbon Beer poured again in Oshkosh when Prohibition ended in 1933. But by then, Pabst's Oshkosh castles had been taken by others.

Capturing the Pabst Flag in Oshkosh

Frederick Pabst

Pabst Square; 136 Jackson St

Captain Pabst always liked Oshkosh. As early as 1876, when his company
was still named Phillip Best Brewing and just three years after Frederick Pabst had been named the brewery’s director, Pabst had an agent living in Oshkosh trying to place his beer in the city’s saloons, hotels and grocery stores. In the 1890s, the Pabst push into Oshkosh intensified. In 1896, the brewery built a bottling and distribution center in Oshkosh. Now called Pabst Square, it remains standing in fine condition at 136 Jackson St.

Pabst followed up in 1897 with the Pabst Exchange, a large saloon at the
southeast corner of 6th and Ohio that housed a dancehall and bowling alley. On May 24, 1897 the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern announced that construction of the saloon was set to begin and that, “The structure will be of brick and its design will be that of an old German castle.” That building also still stands and if you look up at the gables above the building’s corner entrance you can still see the scars that were left when Pabst was driven into retreat in Oshkosh.

Pabst Exchange; 6th & Ohio

By 1914, the Oshkosh Brewing Company, along with the recently established Peoples Brewing Company, had regained control of the Oshkosh beer market. Pabst Brewing decided to reconsider its position here. In January 1914, the Pabst Exchange was sold to the Oshkosh Brewing Company. The circular Pabst signs that had been embedded at the buildings peaks were removed and the holes they left were bricked in. The Pabst flags had been captured by an Oshkosh brewery. And the Oshkosh Brewing Company was in no hurry to give them back.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company would hold onto the Pabst signs for almost 40 years. In 1953, the brewery finally got around to returning them to their owner. The signs were turned over to Harry Lee, the owner of Lee Beverage and the distributor for Pabst in Oshkosh. Earl S. Horn, vice president of the Oshkosh Brewing Company then wrote a letter to Pabst vice president Rudolph Zimmerman saying the signs were on their way. “Please be on the lookout for these signs,” Horn wrote, “as they may be of some value to your company.” In fact, the signs were probably of little worth to one of the worlds largest breweries. And they were certainly nowhere near the prize they had been for the Oshkosh Brewing Company in 1914 when they were a symbol of victory over one of its most powerful Milwaukee rivals.

HERE is a shot of what the building looked like shortly after its construction with the Pabst emblems intact at the top of the building.