The Distillery District
by Matthew Medders
Early History
The Distillery District in Lexington, Kentucky is located just northwest of downtown Lexington, on Manchester Street. The history of the Distillery District begins in the 1860s. The first distillery on the site was the Henry Clay Distillery, belonging to the Headley and Farra Company. The Henry Clay Distillery was located on Old Frankfort Pike (currently Manchester Street), and the bank of Town Branch Creek. This location is close to McConnell Springs, which is where Lexington was originally settled in 1775. The property (400 acres) was purchased by Headley and Farra for $2,000 from Judge George Robertson in 1869. In 1871, a fire destroyed the structure, and effectively ended the Henry Clay Distillery. For a short time period, the property was used as a pork processing plant, before seeing whiskey production again.
Photo by Jared Fairchild
Pepper Era
In 1879, the James E. Pepper Distillery took ownership of the site, and the new distillery was completed in April, 1880. At the time, it was the largest bourbon distillery in the Uniter States. During the next two decades, six warehouses with the capability to store almost 50,000 barrels of whiskey were constructed on the property. Pepper continued to operate the distillery until his death on December 24, 1906, at the age of fifty-five. The site was used as storage for whiskey stockpiles from local distilleries during Prohibition (1920-1934).Post-Pepper Era
The James E. Pepper Distillery was sold in 1933 to the Schenley Products Corporation. Whiskey was still produced at the site until 1962, and Schenley Products sold the property in 1977. The property was largely abandoned for a few decades before the city of Lexington looked into redeveloping the site. In the past few years, the property has undergone much revitalization. It is currently home to Ethereal Brewing, a microbrewery and tap-room , Middlefork Kitchen Bar , Crank & Boom Ice Cream Lounge , Goodfellas Pizzeria , Barrel House Distilling Co and Elkhorn Tavern , and The Break Room bar.References
Whitney Todd, Lexington Historic Distillery District, ExploreKYHistory, accessed April 25, 2017 Source LinkWesterfield, Savannah. James E. Pepper Distillery listed on National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved April 25, 2017 Source Link