Wisconsin. The Pfister Hotel In 1889 Pfister held stock in the Milwaukee Hotel company and paid a high price to buy up a majority of the shares, allowing him to fulfill his father's vision of building the greatest hotel in the city. The lavish Pfister Hotel opened in May 1893, costing over $1 million and outfitted with the latest amenities. The hotel struggled in its first year, with Pfister losing several hundred dollars a day. It wasn't until the state Republican convention in July 1894 that the hotel was filled to capacity. It became the home of many political operations and official functions, and was the preferred hotel of visiting dignitaries and celebrities. Pfister personally guided the hotel, for many years living in one of its suites. Following a paralytic stroke in 1927 Pfister sold the hotel to longtime employee Ray Smith, who Pfister had mentored since Smith was a child. The hotel houses a large collection of the Victorian art that Pfister's close friend art dealer Henry Reinhardt selected for the hotel. Reports that Pfister's ghost haunts the hotel became widespread in 2009 after several visiting major league baseball players refused to stay there after reporting suspicious occurrences. Managing a monopoly As a director of railroad magnate Henry Villard's North American Company, Pfister acquired John Hinsey's street railway and his electricity company. By buying up all the other street lines and power companies in the city, he created the first transit and power monopoly in the country. The corporation expanded into the largest utility holding corporation in the world, controlling the utilities in many large cities such as St. Louis, Cleveland and San Francisco. After the Panic of 1893 the overcapitalized corporation was drowning in debt, and sought to balance its books by raising electricity rates on homes and businesses, discontinuing commuter rail passes, evading taxes and violating city ordinances. A huge public outcry was followed by a call for municipally owned utilities. Driven into receivership, the monopoly was re-organized by Pfister, F.G. Bigleow and state Republican boss Henry Clay Payne as The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company (TMER&L). Refusing to lower its train fares during the depression, the company soon became the most hated institution in the city. In 1896, the company hired strikebreakers to put down a strike by the Amalgamated Street Railway Employees Union, and the next week a public boycott was launched. Over the