Old Oscar Pepper Distillery, 7855 McCracken Pike, Versailles

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS KY-161. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Labrot & Graham s Old Oscar Pepper Distillery is significant to the foundation of the bourbon distilling industry, a distinctly national spirit with its historic origins in Kentucky. Nearly all of the country s bourbon is distilled in Kentucky. The site retains much of the historic integrity of the distillery s architecture from both the pre- and post-Prohibition eras of the industry, as well as maintaining its rural location in Versailles, Kentucky. Many of the pre-Prohibition buildings are constructed of local Kentucky limestone, a common material in Kentucky vernacular architecture. However, the use of stone as a building material in the distillery industry is rare, and Labrot & Graham is the only one to actively use existing limestone structures today.

This is also the site of which bourbon distilling became a scientifically organized process. In the Dr. James Crow was the chemist who used scientific instruments to test the properties of the bourbon, such as temperature and sugar content, to standardize the product and created the sour-mash method of bourbon distilling that is now a major component of the process. Labrot & Graham highlights the evolution of the bourbon distilling industry from the traditional, small-scale copper still distilling to the mass-produced and highly- specialized process that it has become since the repeal of Prohibition. Unlike other historic Kentucky distilleries, Labrot & Graham has not been affected by suburban sprawl nor has it undergone significant rehabilitation and restoration projects.

Description: Distillery Building: Constructed in the Distillery Building houses the three copper stills used during distillation and the six fermenting tanks that hold the mash. This building is one of the main buildings that visitors touring the site see. From the primary entrance that visitors see, the shape of the building is a two- story, coursed and mortared limestone structure separated into two sections. The first section has five bays with six-over-six, double-hung windows topped by segmented arches. The second section is a three-bay unit with the same type of OLD OSCAR PEPPER DISTILLERY HABS No. (Page 2) fenestration. The gable roof is sheathed with standing-seam metal and is perforated by eleven gable-roofed skylights above the fermenting room.

In a mill stone was placed above the main door to the distillery, which is the middle opening of the three-bay section at the sound end of the fa ade. 1 The stone has the words Old Oscar Pepper Distillery Est. Labrot & Graham Est. inscribed in it. Above the roofline stands the later addition to the Distillery Building, a series of four, balloon-framed rectangular structures of varying heights, all clad in corrugated metal. The fenestration on each of these structures varies; some are two-over-two double-hung windows and others are six-over-six, while others still are casement windows. Towering over the entire building are three 100-foot-tall smoke stacks that are replicas of their original stacks.

The interior plan of the Distillery Building was reworked to accommodate visitor tours after it was acquired by Brown-Forman in The fermenting room now has two levels with an open plan, adding an office space and a restroom on the second floor. Four gallon cypress wood fermenting tanks, one gallon steel mash cooker, and one yeast cooker extend the height of both floors. The first floor is partially platformed in the still room for guests to walk on approaching the copper stills, allowing for barrel storage beneath the platform. The non-platformed portion of the first floor allows for exhibition and barrel construction demonstration space. The copper sills are of varying sizes: the beer pot still is gallons, the spirit pot still is gallons, and the steel barrel gauge tank is gallons.

Government Office: Constructed in as a cistern room, the Government Office was converted into an office in It is a single-story, square limestone coursed and mortared building. The gable roof is sheathed in standing-seam metal. The door is located on the south-facing gable end, covered by a gable- roofed hood with square columns. The other three facades have a single, six- over-six segmentally arched window. Used currently as an employee office, a bathroom was converted into a mechanical room during its restoration. Warehouse C: Warehouse C, constructed between and to house the barrels of bourbon, is located directly south of the Distillery Building. It is constructed of solid, coursed and mortared limestone and is three-and-a-half stories tall.

The standing-seam metal roof is gabled in the north-south direction. The Warehouse is 58 feet wide and 100 feet long with five bays of evenly-spaced segmented arch double-hung windows. The windows are all covered by vertical iron security bars and each flanked by metal shutters. On each gable end and on 1 Jean K. Wolf. Labrot & Graham s Old Oscar Pepper Distillery, (Versailles, Woodford County, Kentucky, National Historic Landmark Nomination), 11. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Accessed at OLD OSCAR PEPPER DISTILLERY HABS No. (Page 3) the western-facing facade, there are metals doors as the central opening on the first floor. On the interior, the barrels are stored on wooden racks stacked three stories high.

The walkways on each level cut through the center of the plan axially. There is an interior elevator lift system to move the barrels throughout storage that intersects the central walkway at the north end of the building. History: The site that is now home to the Woodford Reserve Distillery was first settled in when Elijah Pepper used 200 acres of land along Glenn s Creek in Woodford County to build a grist mill and distillery. Not much is known about his distillery enterprise. The only remaining building today is his log cabin house, and after his death in his son Oscar Neville Pepper was named the manager of the business.

It was at this time that he enlisted the help of chemist James Crow as the master distiller, who is credited with being the first to make bourbon as a scientifically controlled process. The stone Distillery Building was constructed in and still remains today with a number of later additions. During this time, the distillery business thrived, but when Oscar Pepper died in the land was divided up between his seven children. All of the land used for the distillery was controlled by his wife, as she was the guardian of the land given to their youngest minor son. Pepper leased the land to investors, although the Pepper s oldest son, James, was retained as a manager of the site.

At some unknown point between and two stone warehouses now known as Warehouse A and Warehouse B were built, and although they are no longer standing, they served as the inspiration architecturally for Warehouses C and D, which were constructed between and In the the investing group, Gaines, Berry & Co., began producing whiskey they branded Old Crow Whiskey after James Crow, and the distillery was named the Old Crow Distillery. James Pepper filed suit against his mother for control of the land in and a few years later began a business partnership with one of the investors, Edmund H Taylor, in order to make extensive renovations and improvements to the distillery. However, within a few years, Pepper went bankrupt and was forced to give up his interest in the property.

Taylor controlled the distillery until he underwent economic failure, and eventually, after being bailed out by a creditor, the property was deeded to James H. Graham, half the namesake of Labrot & Graham. Graham partnered with Leopold Labrot, who was a French wine producer who worked in the liquor business. They held control of the property for 62 years, which is the longest any owner has retained the distillery. It was during this ownership that the majority of the changes architecturally occurred. Graham OLD OSCAR PEPPER DISTILLERY HABS No. (Page 4) retired in and Labrot died in but their later proprietors maintained the name Labrot & Graham.

Prohibition in forced the distillery to shutter, and it remained vacant until the repeal of Prohibition in Many of the buildings suffered damage from neglect. The new managers of Labrot & Graham, Richard Baker and Claude V. Bixler, took on the task of repairing and rebuilding the distillery, often reusing materials from demolished or ruined buildings on-site. In the iconic barrel run was installed to facilitate the moving of bourbon barrels from the distillery building to the warehouses to age. The barrel run is over 500 feet long and is still how bourbon barrels are transported today.

The other significant structures added to the site are the terra cotta tile warehouses, called Warehouses E, F, and H, that were built between and and the three one-hundred-feet-tall cast iron smoke stacks that were added on to the distillery building. The smoke stacks are now considered an iconic addition to the landscape of the Labrot & Graham distillery. In Labrot & Graham sold the distillery to Brown-Forman Distillers Corporation, which was already the owner of several other bourbon brands.

Brown-Forman continued the production of the bourbon until a decline in the bourbon market after World War II forced the closure of the plant in Eventually, bourbon storage ended and the entire property was sold to a local farmer who used it for agricultural storage in A resurrection in the bourbon industry in the sparked the interest of Brown- Forman, and in they bought back the property from the farmer with the intention of creating a distillery that could be used for heritage tourism purposes. A new Visitors Center was built and opened in The complex now distills small-batch bourbon, Woodford Reserve, and the distillery has been rebranded as Woodford Reserve Distillery.

Woodford Reserve is a popular destination on the Bourbon Trail and tours are given several times daily, as well as hosting other private events.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS KY-161. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Wolf, Jean K., Labrot & Graham s Old Oscar Pepper Distillery, Versailles, Woodford County, Kentucky, National Historic Landmark Nomination. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Washington, DC. Historians: Katie McNamee and Christina Sabol, Masters in Historic Preservation, University of Kentucky, College of Design, June

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS KY-161. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Documentation of the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery was donated to the HABS collection through the Peterson Prize student drawing competition. University of Kentucky, College of Design, Department of Historic Preservation OLD OSCAR PEPPER DISTILLERY HABS No. (Page 5) prepared measuring drawings with faculty sponsor Professor Julie Riesenweber. The student team included Katie McNamee and Christina Sabol.