Kentucky bourbon tradition continues as new or planned distilleries crop up around state

While Kentucky is known for its long history of producing bourbon, that tradition continues to grow with new or planned distilleries cropping up in several areas of the state.


Historic Star Terrace, which sat directly above the original Old Pogue Distillery, has been fully renovated and is the base of operations for H.E. Pogue Distillery today. (Photo from Old Pogue)
Among these are the Old Pogue Distillery in Maysville, Alltech’s Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company, Michter’s Distillery in Louisville and The Nth Degree Distilling in Newport. All plan to offer tours for visitors who want to learn more about Kentucky’s most famous consumer product and the country’s only native spirit.

The Old Pogue Distillery, which began operation in April, borrows from a lengthy distilling tradition by the Pogue family in this northern Kentucky town on the Ohio River. Several generations of Pogues were involved in distilling from 1876 until Prohibition in the 1920s. Now the Pogues have opened a small-batch distillery producing bourbon and rye whiskeys in the family’s historic home on West Second Street.

Local historians proudly note that bourbon distilling in Kentucky began in 1790 in Mason County near where the H.E. Pogue Distillery operated later for more than 50 years. The Pogues are offering tours of their new facility by appointment through their website. Twice-daily scheduled tours will begin in the near future.

Meanwhile, it’s been nearly 200 years since there was an operating distillery on Louisville’s “Whiskey Row,” a stretch of downtown’s Main Street that’s been associated with bourbon for more than two centuries. Now Michter’s Distillery plans to open a small production facility in the historic and architecturally significant Fort Nelson Building at 801 W. Main St. The new distillery, directly across the street from the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, will offer tours when it’s scheduled to open sometime next year.

Louisville Distilling Company, which is producing a new small-batch bourbon called Angel’s Envy in Bardstown, also hopes to move to a facility on Main Street next year. The company is a family venture involving Lincoln Henderson, retired master distiller at spirits giant Brown-Forman.

The Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company is building a 20,000 square foot plant west of the city’s downtown that will produce a new whiskey named Town Branch Bourbon. Owned by Alltech, the global animal nutrition company based in Nicholasville, the distillery will also produce Pearse Lyons Reserve whiskey and Bluegrass Sundown, an after-dinner bourbon-and-coffee beverage. The new $6 million distillery plans to join the Kentucky Distillers’ Association’s Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour experience this fall. The new building at 401 Cross St. will have glass walls on three sides so the copper stills and fermentation tanks can be seen from outside. The owners hope it will become a prominent tourist attraction near Lexington’s proposed Arena, Arts and Entertainment District. Visit the company’s website.

Plans are also in the works for a new micro-distillery in Newport to be called The Nth Degree. The developers, who broke ground in July, are hoping to become part of the Bourbon Trail when the facility opens next year and are aiming to attract 700 visitors a week for tours.

Other small-batch bourbon producers have been operating for several years in areas away from the well-known bourbon country of Central Kentucky. For example, Corsair Artisan Distillery in Bowling Green and here.

From the Kentucky Department of Travel and Tourism

The Kaintuckeean: Mercer County's Glenworth Farm

The Kaintuckeean: Mercer County's Glenworth Farm: In March, I noticed a classified ad for the absolute auction of a farm in Mercer County. The photo showed a beautiful Greek Revival Mansion....

Glenworth was built in 1848 by Robert Mosby Davis on land deeded to him by his uncle, Robert Mosby He was the namesake of his uncle.

It was given to him for taking care of his uncle in his old age. The land was originally owned by the Robards family. Lewis Robards married and lived here with Rachel Donelson Robards, later Mrs. Andrew Jackson.

Her father Colonel John Donelson was the founder of Nashville, Tennessee. There was a bigamy scandal when Andrew Jackson married Rachel Donaldson Robards before a divorce was finalized and Andrew Jackson was dogged by political gossip throughout his career. The land passed to Robert Mosby through his marriage to Lewis Robards’ sister.

Washington Hall Mason County

Washington Hall in Old Washington was originally built as a hotel in 1820 in an attempt to maintain Washington as the county seat for Mason County. The attempt did not work and the county seat was moved to Maysville, which had grown with the river traffic.

The building was most recently used to house small shops. Each room held a different shop that visitors could get items from before taking them to the front and paying. In the back of the building there was an apartment, where the owner of the building normally lived.

Antebellum Home in Mt Sterling

This elegant Georgian style mansion is located at 209 W. Main Street in Mt. Sterling,KY

Ellis-O'Connell House, 209 West Main Street. Two-story, five-bay brick residence with a gable roof built in 1852. The central passage plan is one room deep with gable-end chimneys. There are brick jack arches over the windows and a deep bracketed cornice and frieze. The recessed central entrance is framed by a simple entablature with brackets, sidelights
with colored glass, and fluted Corinthian half columns. To the rear is a single story brick ell. The front of the property is delineated by a cast-iron fence with a stone base.
Hezekiah Ellis who was a director of the Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad built the house in 1852 and sold it to Mack O'Connell in 1864 after Ellis suffered financial reverses in the panic of 1857. Mack or M.C. O'Connell was a grocer who served five or six consecutive terms on the City Council. He accumulated considerable property in Mt. Sterling. The
house is the birthplace of W.B. O'Connell, clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Born in 1865, O'Connell established the newspaper Evening Free Lance, famous during the silver campaigns of 1896 and 1897.O'Connell became the Montgomery County Clerk in 1897. The house was sold in 1880 to Mrs. Strauther S. Gaitskill (Maggie Apperson). The Gaitskill family lived here from 1880 to 1936.

General John Bell Hood (CSA) Boyhood Home

Located 3 miles west of Mt Sterling on US 60 in Montgomery County

Biography of General John Bell Hood, CSA

Early Years:

John Bell Hood was born on June 29, 1831, in Owingsville (Bath County), Kentucky, a son of Dr. John and Theodosia French Hood.
Records indicate that the Mt. Sterling, Kentucky home of Dr. John Hood was one of comfort, but not extravagance. Upon the death of her father James French in 1835, Theodosia inherited $700.00 in cash, and apparently used those funds to purchase a home. The two-story brick structure still stands today (May 2001) on US Route 60, three miles west of Mt. Sterling, and is occupied as a personal residence.

In 1841 Dr. Hood began acquiring land that ultimately totaled approximately 600 acres. Although Montgomery County tax records were destroyed by fire, the size of the farm suggests that Dr. Hood would have owned slaves. However, the absence of any evidence of slave quarters on the current home site indicates that the number of slaves was probably not significant.

Although folklore tells of John Bell Hood being a wild youth, there is no record whatsoever of any legal problems. Legend also speaks of his fondness and pursuit of girls. One legend is that of his affair with Anne Mitchell, featured in the October 25, 1948 issue of Life Magazine, "The Ghost of Anne Mitchell." Again however, this may also be less than totally credible since a civil libel lawsuit was filed soon after the story’s publication by a descendent of one of the main characters in the story. Hood’s reputation for being compulsive and rambunctious, as well as his reputation as a "lady’s man", seems to have evolved many years after the Civil War, and has no known verifiable or documented evidence to confirm its accuracy or authenticity.

John Bell and his siblings were left with their mother for approximately eight months each year during the middle and late 1840’s during Dr. Hood’s annual visits to Philadelphia, where he taught medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. During the extended absences of his father, young John Bell would be influenced significantly by his grandfather Luke, the old Indian fighter, and his grandfather James, the Revolutionary War veteran. He would also no doubt be told stories of the war experiences of his great grandfathers, and uncles.

John Bell was urged by his father to take up the study of medicine, and was even offered an opportunity to study in Europe. However, John Bell desired to follow in the soldier’s footsteps of his forefathers, and with the assistance of his uncle, Judge Richard French, he received an appointment to West Point, enrolling on July 1, 1849.

Bell House Circa 1814

Bell House on Maysville Street in Mt Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky. Mt Sterling was known as the Crossroads of the American Civil War.

A Storybook Inn, Circa 1838 Versailles, Woodford County

Historic Amsden-Haupt House

Watkins Tavern in Versailles, Woodford County

Old Moss House Circa 1812- Woodford County

Also known as Moss Side. Placed on National Reister of Historic Places in 1979.

Located three miles south of Versailles on McCoun's Ferry Road.

Built between 1812-1816 by John and Elizabeth Watkins, step-father and mother of Henry Clay upon a 1000 acre tract on Griers Creek.After his mother's death Henry Clay purchased a one- third interest and later sold it to his step-father.

House is located on Moss Hill Farm and is unoccupied and in deteriorating condition.

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill

Between Lexington and Harrodsburg in Mercer County

Old Kentucky Governor's Mansion Frankfort

One of the oldest Executive residences in the United States, Kentucky’s Old Governor’s Mansion has a rich and diverse history, and stands as a reminder of the growth and history of our state. From its construction as Kentucky’s first Governor’s residence and office of the Governor, through its nearly fifty years as the official residence of our Lieutenant Governors, this building has seen more historic events and has borne witness to more important persons than almost any home in the Commonwealth.

Built in 1797-8 in the Federal style, the home was first occupied by our second governor, James Garrard and his family.
From 1798 until 1914, thirty-five governors and their families lived and entertained here, with James McCreary as the last governor to reside at the mansion. The mansion served as the office of the Governor until the 1872 Annex building was constructed next to the Old State Capitol in downtown Frankfort. For several years even after the Governor’s office relocated to the Old Capitol Annex, the Mansion remained a work space for the governor.

Several important visitors to the Governor’s Mansion include Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, William Jennings Bryan, and Theodore Roosevelt. However, when General Lafayette of France visited Frankfort on his tour of the southern states in 1825, Governor Desha received and met with General Lafayette at the Weisiger Tavern, not the Governor’s Mansion as expected.

Due to the early instability and speculation on whether the capital of Kentucky would remain located in Frankfort, the Governor’s Mansion sometimes suffered from neglect and lack of funding for renovations. While it did receive a modest renovation and new furnishings around 1818, in 1858 a major renovation of the house included enlarging the windows, a new front doorway, and several other touches that brought it up to date with the then popular Greek Revival-style. This renovation, however, was short lived as a major fire in the 1890’s damaged the home and destroyed many of the Governor’s papers and state documents.

Upon the completion of the New State Capitol across the river in 1910, it was decided, finally, to replace this older, disused house with a more substantial residence for the First Family.

Lafayette Academy in Lexington

Lexington Herald-Leader:Tom Eblen

Lafayette Academy was built between 1817 and 1820 for John P. Aldridge's Lancasterian Academy. His students included the future architect Gideon Shryock, who designed Transylvania University's Old Morrison and the Old State Capitol in Frankfort.

Aldridge's building soon became Col. Josiah Dunham's Lexington Female Academy, whose students came from 11 states and included the daughters of Lexington's most prominent families. By 1825 — the height of Lexington's fame as the "Athens of the West" — the academy had 135 pupils, nine instructors and a governing board that included statesman Henry Clay and Transylvania President Horace Holley.

That star power is probably what led the 67-year-old French general to stop by for a tribute on the afternoon of May 16, 1825. He was visiting Lexington as part of a celebrated tour across the grateful nation he helped create.

Lafayette arrived with a military escort and the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee in tow. Dunham's pupils sang patriotic songs and recited verse in both English and French. "It was here that as successful an effort was made to gratify our visitor as has been attempted in any quarter of the union," the Kentucky Gazette reported.

Lafayette was moved, according to another published account. "Well may this heart, old, but warm in its feelings, palpitate, at the sound of your patriotic and affectionate accents," he told the young ladies.

In honor of the general's visit, Dunham had renamed his school Lafayette Female Academy. Enrollment grew and the building's rear wing was added about 1830.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/03/12/2106400/marquis-de-lafayette-would-be.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

John Hunt Morgan House Lexington

In the midst of Lexington’s historic antebellum Gratz Park, the Hunt-Morgan House stands as a reminder of early 19th century life, when Lexington was known as The Athens of the West.

Built in 1814, the Federal style Hunt-Morgan House has many beautiful architectural features, including the Palladian window with fan and sidelights that grace its front façade. In 1955, the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation was formed to save the home from impending demolition. The organization restored the home to its Federal appearance and now operates the house as a museum.

The museum’s collection of early Kentucky furniture, antique porcelain and 19th century paintings captures the elegance of the Hunt and Morgan families. The rooms are furnished with articles of the period as well as those owned by the family. The Alexander T. Hunt Civil War Museum, located on the second floor of the Hunt-Morgan House, features an extensive collection of Civil War relics and memorabilia.

Amos Shinkle Town House, Circa 1854

Townhouse at located 215 Garrard Street, Covington, Kentucky was once the residence of Covington businessman Amos Shinkle. It is now a bed and breakfast.

Grand Foyer

Amos Shinkle, a long-time Covington resident, was active in the area during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. His contributions are many. As a businessman, he helped to organize a bank, to build steamboats, to bring gas lighting to Covington and to build approximately 30 to 40 houses in Covington as a developer.

Shinkle’s most substantial contribution to northern Kentucky was as the guiding light behind the Covington and Cincinnati (now John A. Roebling) Suspension Bridge. A bridge, which was first envisioned as early as 1839, was recognized by civic leaders as being vital to the continued development of Covington and northern Kentucky as it would link Covington, which was northern Kentucky’s financial, commercial and mercantile center to downtown Cincinnati.

Amos Shinkle Summer Residence Circa 1866

Italianate residence in South Fort Mitchell,Boone County,Kentucky(Adjacent to I-275 West) built in 1866 as a summer residence for Covington developer and builder, Amos Shinkle.Added to National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Boone Tavern- Berea, KY

Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant was built in 1909 at the suggestion of Nellie Frost, the wife of the College president, William G. Frost. Until then, guests of the college had been welcomed into the president's home for lodging and meals. However, as the reputation of Berea College grew, so did the number of guests that Mrs. Frost received, reaching a total of 300 guests in one summer, thus came the idea for a College guest house. Boone Tavern Hotel – named for Appalachian hero Daniel Boone – has been hosting visitors of Berea, Kentucky, ever since.
Construction of Boone Tavern began in 1907 based on designs by the New York architectural firm of Cady & See at a cost of $20,000. The building, made of bricks manufactured by students in the College's brickyard, was constructed by the College's Woodwork Department. The "Tavern" portion of the name derives from the historic definition that refers to a public inn for travelers rather than the modern definition related to the sale of alcohol.

Built at a prominent location on the College Square in the heart of Berea where the old Dixie Highway intersected with the campus, this historic hotel and restaurant became a popular destination with the traveling public from the beginning of the "automobile age."

The Kaintuckeean: NoD: Oregon is a place inside Kentucky. Huh?

The Kaintuckeean: NoD: Oregon is a place inside Kentucky. Huh?: Landing at Oregon, Kentucky When you think of Oregon, you probably conjure up an image of a western state with beautiful panoramas of th...

Once Upon A Place

Once Upon a Place: The Fading of Community in Rural Kentucky was written by Kenneth Tunnell, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Eastern Kentucky University.

Rural communities are undergoing profound change. Within the United States, these changes are tied to the demise of the family farm—the decline in family farming and the “development” of the country-side race along. Small businesses are dying as big-box retailers dominate local economies. People are leaving their homes where their families have lived for generations. In his new book titled Once Upon A Place, author Kenneth D. Tunnell vividly presents The Fading of Community in Rural Kentucky.

Packed with photographs, Once Upon A Place documents these shifts within Kentucky. The author has paid visual attention to the downturn in family farming and to the closing of local businesses, schools, post offices, and churches; to the influx of big-box retailers; to symbols of community awash in change; and to indications of social disorganization played out as social problems. Observations of these events within Kentucky are described in this book. The many photographs record vast changes to geographical and cultural features of rural life.

Highly descriptive and very informative, Once Upon A Place is a fascinating book that will help readers understand the changing of times through the well-presented graphics and writings

"The Grange"-Bourbon County

Edward Stone began building the home that he called Oakland in 1800 on land his father received for Revolutionary War service. Construction took nearly 20 years, and Stone spared no expense. One of his professions was builder, and he apparently wanted to advertise his workmanship.

The Grange is considered one of Kentucky's finest Federal-style homes. The five-bay front façade is flanked by pavilions with elaborate Palladian windows set in gently curved brick. The main floor has 14-foot ceilings and is trimmed with lavish woodwork and mantles. A leaded-glass fanlight and sidelights around the front door illuminate the main hall's grand staircase.

But Stone was better known for his other profession: slave trader. Even many slave owners of that era looked down on slave traders because of their cruel methods. Few were more infamous than Stone, who might have been the inspiration for Mr. Haley, the unscrupulous slave trader in Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Source:Tom Eblen Lexington Herald Leader

V.P. Richard Mentor Johnson's Choctaw Academy

Located between Great Crossing and Stamping Ground in Scott County.

William C. Craig House - Scott County

Greek Revival house built for William Craig in the 1840's near Richard Mentor Johnson's Blue Springs Farm and the Choctaw Academy.


Kentucky contains many versions of the Craig House architecture including Waveland and the Noah Spears home in Paris.

Phillip's Folly-Maysville,Mason County, Kentucky

Phillips Folly - 227 Sutton St, Maysville. Built by William B. Phillips between 1828-1831.Phillips was the Second mayor of Maysville. Phillips traveled to New Orleans and won
enough money to finish the home.This home was possibly a stop on the Underground Railroad.


On March 2011, Ghost Adventures from the Travel Channel filmed at Phillips' Folly. The episode aired on Friday May 13th, 2011. It featured current owner and Underground Railroad historian, Jerry Gore. Phillips' Folly is said to be haunted by William B. Phillips and his dog, by a guest of the house who committed suicide while staying there and the ghosts of slaves who were tortured and murdered in a makeshift jail in the basement of the building.

Old Crow Inn, Danville, Boyle County

Nestled on twenty seven acres of pastoral splendor stands Old Crow Inn, the oldest stone house west of the Allegheny Mountains. Encased by black post and board fencing and old stone fencing, the Inn is surrounded by mature shade trees and carefully manicured lawns. Lovely dogwood and redbud trees line the long oval drive to the main house.

The Inn itself is an architectural delight. Constructed in 1780 using stone taken from a quarry on the farm, the 24” thick walls stand two stories high behind massive Doric columns which support a Greek Portico. All of the rooms have walnut doors and woodwork, ash floors, and cherry beams, native timbers cut from virgin forests of the late 1700’s. Old Crow Inn is on the Kentucky Register of Historic Homes and the National Register of Historic Places.

History


The CROW-BARBEE House is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places as the oldest Stone structure west of the Allegheny Mountains. Today it is called “Old Crow Inn” in honor of John Crow, who settled here in 1776. The estate was called “Oakland” by the Barbees who lived in the house from 1781 to 1874.

Old Crow Inn is a 7 bay asymmetrical two story structure with the front door located in the fifth bay. Walls of the structure are of 24” dry-stacked limestone, reaching from the foundation to the roof line 40 feet above. The interior beams, floors, woodwork and doors are fashioned from cherry, walnut and ash cut down on the property. Most of the rafters and floor beams throughout the house are 3” by 12” Cherry. All of the woodwork and doors are made from Black Walnut and the floors are White Ash. There are stone fireplaces in each room on the first and second floors as well as in two of the three basement cellars. The third basement cellar was the cold storage used to store dairy and vegetables.

Historians believe that Crow built a log cabin on the property in 1776 when he planted his first corn crop to claim the property. A land court record also states that he improved the property in 1777 when he built a 1 1/2 story stone cottage at the rear of what is now the main house. The stone cottage, approximately 19 feet square has walls of 18” thick dry stacked stone. All of the beams are 3” x 12” Cherry. The rafters in the half-story attic are 4” x 5” Cherry pegged at the peak and at the knee walls with Walnut pegs. The rafters have been marked with Roman numerals so as to properly align the mortise and tendon joints on the ground prior to pegging in place at the roof peak.

There is some disagreement as to who constructed the main Stone Manor House. There is some evidence to indicate that Crow built the central portion in 1780 since the construction of the stone walls, Cherry beams and Walnut woodwork and doors is nearly identical to the craftsmanship in the stone cottage. Crow sold the property to James Wright in 1781. However, Wright was killed by Indians before he and his family could move in. After his death, his heirs sold the property to Thomas Barbee in the mid 1780’s.

Thomas Barbee, a landed statesman of that time, rose to the rank of General in the Kentucky Militia and became the first Post Master west of the Alleghenies. Thomas and his youngest brother, Col. Joshua Barbee, added the two wings onto the house as well as the 4 foot thick brick Doric columns and the triangle pediment Greek Portico. Thomas started on the project in 1786 and the construction was finished in 1797.

Construction of the two wings, first the left and then the right, confirms the above historical view. The stones for the two wings are cut and dressed in a much more sophisticated manner then those in the central portion. The beams for the two wings are Chestnut, not Cherry. Finally, the nails and other details indicate a difference in construction style and technique.

This unique English Manor house built in a Greek revival style, has been most widely known throughout its 20th Century history as an inn and restaurant. In 1899, the Adams family bought the house and grounds, with its farm acreage to be used for agricultural purposes. But in 1934, upon the advice of friends, Miss Mary Adams opened the inn for meals and overnight accommodations. For the next 40 years, Miss Mary, as she was known throughout the Bluegrass region, operated a restaurant in the inn. She also hosted Weddings and Receptions, class graduation parties, teas, and other social events. In addition she also provided some overnight accommodations to travelers. The name “Old Crow Inn” was chosen by Miss Mary. Her research, through correspondence with various Historians around the country as well as her interpretation of court documents, indicated that John Crow had much to do with the establishment of the House known as Old Crow. She was in the process of committing all of this to paper at her death.

The Old Presbyterian Meeting House Stanford, Lincoln County

Dr. Basil Duke Home-Mason County

Located in Old Washington in Maysville, Kentucky. Its early history traces back to circa 1800. Dr. Basil Duke moved to Mason County in 1798 and practiced medicine in the community for 30 years; he died in 1828. Local history indicates the property was also a school/boarding house owned by a Rev. Robert McMurdy in 1849. Dr. Duke was the Grandfather of Confederate General Basil Duke,brother-in-law of General John Hunt Morgan, the Thunderbolt of the Confederacy'

Carrie Nation House- Garrard County

Carrie Nation's birthplace is located in northern Garrard County near the Kentucky River.

* Born: 25 November 1846
* Birthplace: Garrard County, Kentucky
* Died: 9 June 1911
* Best Known As: Hatchet-wielding champion of alcohol prohibition

Name at birth: Carrie Amelia Moore

Carry Nation joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1899 to help in the fight against alcohol. By 1900 she had made a name for herself as an aggressive supporter of prohibition who would use use rocks, hammers or hatchets to destroy saloons and their liquor. Nation and her tactics were controversial even within the temperance movement. She was arrested 30 times between 1900 and 1910, but her antics drew national attention to the issue of alcohol prohibition in the United States. She died in 1911, but her efforts paid off in 1919 with the passage of the 18th Amendment banning "intoxicating liquors." The era known as Prohibition lasted until 1933, when the 21st Amendment repealed the ban. Her memoir, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, was published in 1905.

Nation was married twice: to the alcoholic Dr. Charles Gloyd (1865-69) and then to David A. Nation (1877-1901). Some confusion exists over the spelling of Nation's first name; official records seem to indicate that she was originally named Carrie, but in later years she adopted Carry and liked to say that her movement would help carry

Hartland Mansion-Fayette County

Hartland Mansion is an antebellum home ( private residence) that was once the focal point of Hartland Farm in Lexington. It has been preserved and now sits in the middle of a huge residential development off Tates Creek Road in southern Fayette County.