POTTSVILLE — Visitors can now view an additional architectural feature of the historic Frank D. Yuengling Mansion – its original master bathroom.
Walled off about 45 years ago, the turn-of-the-century style bathroom has been exposed and can now be viewed from the second floor hallway.
Marley Mikovich, Schuylkill Council for the Arts executive director, said the bathroom was sealed off to make way for a fire exit when the mansion went from a private home to a public space.
The artificial enclosure was taken down around Christmas, revealing a Victorian style bathroom installed when the mansion was built 113 years ago.
An architectural gem, the bathroom’s subway tile walls are capped with decorative tile hand-painted with mountain laurel, the state flower. The arched ceiling is trimmed in a plaster-cast floral motif.
Victorian wall sconces flank the mirror over a large, wide sink. The tub is of white porcelain.
The piece de resistance, however, is a rare Victorian ribcage shower, normally found only in upscale homes of the period.
The ribcage shower at the Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
The original master suite at the Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. The bathroom was recently uncovered after being walled off to allow the installation of a fire escape. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
The original master suite at the Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. The bathroom was recently uncovered after being walled off to allow the installation of a fire escape. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
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The ribcage shower at the Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
A wrap-around nickel-plated steel tubing enclosure, patented by Peck Brothers Co. in 1906, it has an overhead rainfall shower head, “liver” shower heads on both sides and a bidet attachment.
A complicated series of porcelain knobs allowed bathers to customize the water flow.
“This is not at all what I was expecting,” confided Mikovich, curator of the mansion for nearly three years. “I was totally surprised by how elaborate the shower is.”
The bathroom’s existence was no secret.
Richard “Dick” Yuengling, fifth-generation president of D.G. Yuengling & Sons Brewery, grew up in the mansion. He told Mikovich of its existence.
Mikovich, holder of a degree in architecture from Temple University, said it was plainly visible in the mansion’s original blueprints.
Marley Mikovich, Schuylkill County Council for the Arts executive director, points out where the plans say a bathroom is located at the Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
Mikovich also hopes to open Frank D. Yuengling’s office to the public.
Across the hall from the master bedroom, the office has an anteroom with built-in cabinets and a private booth with an in-house telephone.
On the intercom, Yuengling could call other parts of the home, including the kitchen and garage.
The mansion was the first in Schuylkill County to have a telephone with an outside line, Mikovich said.
A phone booth at the Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville, pictured Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
The Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville, pictured Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
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A phone booth at the Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville, pictured Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
In a private moment, Yuengling could look out upon a sunken garden through the anteroom window on the mansion’s eastern side.
Frank D. Yuengling, the third-generation owner of the brewery built in 1829, commissioned Reading architect Harry Maurer to design the four-story, 20-room Tudor-Jacobean style mansion at 1440 Mahantongo Street.
Built at a cost of $75,000 in 1913, it features built-in seats beneath leaded-glass windows, pocket doors and button-style electric light switches, cutting-edge at the time.
Frank and Augusta Yuengling raised five children in their home, which had a staff that included a cook, four servants and a chauffeur. The property has formal gardens and a carriage house.
Successive generations of the family lived in the mansion.
In 1978, the Yuengling family donated the property to the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts, which owns and maintains it. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The mansion hosts art exhibitions, performances and the annual Christkindlmarkt during the Christmas season. It’s available for weddings, private events and guided tours.
Information on hours and events is available at schuylkillartscouncil.org.