The Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission declared Gettelman Brewing Co. buildings to be historic. But they are historic for only 180 days, since the designation was “temporary.”
MillerCoors wants to tear down the buildings, use the land for a parking lot. Now it can’t, for at least 180 days.
What makes the buildings worth preserving? According to Carlen Hatala, a senior planner on the commission, it’s Gettleman’s historic roots: “Milwaukee’s Best” comes from a Gettelman recipe. The logo for Icehouse depicts the Gettelman buildings. And in those building Fritz Gettelman invented “a pasteurizer for milk and beer. It was called the Badger Pasteurizer. Fritz invented a snow plow. He designed and patented a steel beer keg which became very popular after prohibition and became an industry standard.” And he did all that in the room where he was born, Hatala added.
MillerCoors begs to differ. The buildings are dilapidated, not easy for visitors to get to, and the inside has nothing special to offer. “This is so much smaller that it cannot operate effectively as a visitors museum. And it’s not unique,” Kelly Grebe, chief legal officer, said.
“One block away you have another example of history of what the brewing industry did and how they would preserve the beer before refrigeration,” Grebe said, referencing the Miller Caves.