A Milwaukee icon may soon get something of a new look.
The Pabst Brewery sign on the bridge that spans Juneau Avenue at North 10th Street in the Brewery District – on the site of what was once the world’s largest lager brewery, which is on the National Register of Historic Places – could get redder.
On Monday, Aug. 4, the City of Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission will consider an application from NID No.1-The Brewery District seeking to replace the current red neon in the sign with LED light strips.
“We would be removing the neon lighting components and installing new LED light strips,” noted a document filed with HPC by the district’s executive director Sam Rampulla. “The Aurora Flex RGB lighting strips are said to be the best alternative to neon lighting.
“The light strips themselves would be laid out within the letters in the same location as the current neon lines and during non-illumination times, there would be no visual difference. During illumination, the average person will notice very little difference.”
Rampulla allowed, however, that some might notice the change.
“A trained eye to this product may notice that the new LED is a true red color and not the orange-red that is currently present. This is due to clear glass and neon gas that is present.”
While this work is being done, Rampulla wrote, the exterior and interior of each of the five letters would be repainted using the current color.
When I wrote this article about the sign, historian John Eastberg said, "The appearance of a sign across Juneau dates back to the 1880s, at least that is about as far back as I can go."
That one, which said “Best Brewery” – the name of the brewery until it was changed to Pabst in 1889 – was on a bridge that beer historian John Steiner said connected Elevator A with Refrigerator House VIII, which, like the bridge, are long gone.
Steiner said the current bridge and sign date to the 1950s, but it’s possible that both are considerably older.
The Registration Form for the inclusion of the brewery on the National Register of Historic Places suggested that the bridge was built in 1891 and the current sign added in 1930.
The reason for the requested change is, perhaps unsurprisingly, maintenance and the cost associated with it. The letters appear to have been up there for at least about 70-75 years, based on Steiner’s date, if not longer.
“Over the past years, we have experienced many issues with the lighting components currently installed in each letter,” Rampulla wrote. “This includes outdated electrical components, expensive fixtures and difficulty sourcing repair parts.
“In an effort to repair the sign during outages, we have tirelessly tried to source parts with no luck, and due to the age of the sign, this has led to ongoing outages of letters. The parts and knowledge required to make repairs on the neon components of each letter are becoming sparse and expensive. We believe that upgrading the fixtures to LED will mitigate additional repairs and cost in the future.”
A report prepared by Historic Preservation Commission staff recommended approving the repainting but denying the changing of the lighting components.
“While HPC has approved new signage in the district with faux neon lighting, the preservation guidelines and the iconic status of the neon sign do not support removal of the historic neon lighting and replacement with modern LED lighting,” that report noted. “The color of the LED lighting will differ from the historic neon and the profile of the LED lighting strip will differ in appearance from the round neon tubes.
“Staff recommends The Brewery NID No. 1 continue their stewardship and care of the historic neon lighting within the iconic Pabst sign. Updating the electrical components is practical and feasible, continuing to use the dated electronics rather than replacing them is not cause for changing the character of the sign. Neon signs are still made and there are craftspeople still making them in Wisconsin.”
According to Historic Preservation Commission Senior Planner Andrew Stern, the project would not require approval from the Wisconsin Historical Society or the National Park Service unless the Brewery District were seeking state or federal funds for the project.
Rampulla did not reply to a request for comment by publication time.
The HPC meeting will be held at 3 p.m., Monday, Aug. 4 in Room 301-A at City Hall, 200 E. Wells St. The meeting will be webcast live at milwaukee.gov/channel25.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
