Frederick joined the Goodrich Line steamships, working his way up from cabin boy on ships sailing Lake Michigan, eventually to captain in 1857.

[3] Around 1890 Captain Pabst commissioned Milwaukee architect George Bowman Ferry to design a mansion in the Flemish Renaissance Revival style.

[citation needed] Ferry had designed a three-story house, dignified, with a pressed brick exterior, corner quoins, decorated with carved stone and terra cotta ornament.

In 1975 the Archdiocese (which had previously wanted to have the grand house demolished) put the mansion up for sale, with the hope that a historic preservation group would purchase it and restore it to its former glory.

[6] The mansion was also briefly pictured during season 4 of the television sitcom How I Met Your Mother as the childhood home of the character Robin Scherbatsky in the 2008 episode "Happily Ever After".

In order to find the original paint color, restorers took down three large mirrors on the eastern wall that had hung there since the Captain's residence.