Distilling at Mount Vernon Estate is done exactly as it was in the 18th century.
With whiskey tourism at an all-time high—there were over two million visitors to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 2022—it’s a good time to expand your horizons, look beyond the distilleries themselves, and learn how the spirit we treasure came to be in the first place. We’ve assembled a list of five significant whiskey history-focused destinations—two in Kentucky, two in Pennsylvania, and one in Virginia—that will provide a deeper understanding of how American whiskey was conceived and acquaint you with some of the important people and places that got the ball rolling.
Oscar Getz Museum of Bourbon History
Bardstown, Kentucky
This artifact-laden museum is located in Bardstown, Kentucky’s historic Spalding Hall, built in 1839 as part of St. Joseph’s College, a small Catholic institution whose educational mission ended in 1968. Today it’s home to the Oscar Getz Museum of Bourbon History as well as the Bardstown Historical Museum.
Oscar Getz was a pre-Prohibition whiskey wholesaler specializing in the product of Bardstown’s Tom Moore Distillery, where he also had his own Old Barton brand bottled. Fascinated by whiskey and the distilling process, Getz began collecting whiskey memorabilia as a hobby, and the result of his quest is this collection.
A walk through the combined collections of Getz and the Bardstown Historical Museum, which share the first floor, offers an almost overwhelming display of everything American whiskey—with a side dish of local history thrown in. Artifacts include bottles and jugs, old-time advertising, period bars and barware, significant documents, authentic moonshine stills, and some very interesting equipment from old distilleries. Though the focus is predictably on Kentucky, the collection also includes distilling artifacts from other states.
The Bardstown history side of the floor adds some local lore of the non-whiskey variety. Get closer to Bardstown’s ties to Native Americans, the Civil War, and St. Joseph’s school itself. Artifacts represent eras from the pre-colonial through the repeal of Prohibition as well as the more recent past.
The current featured exhibit, “Prohibition and Kentucky,” looks at the rise of the Temperance movement, organized crime, and the repeal of the 18th Amendment as it related to Kentucky—then as now the epicenter of America’s whiskey distilling industry.
oscargetzwhiskeymuseum.com
Frazier History Museum
Louisville, Kentucky
The motto at the Frazier is “Where the world meets Kentucky,” and it’s not an empty boast. As the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, this is the first contact many visitors have when they arrive, and it does not disappoint.
Founded by Owsley Brown Frazier in 2004 as the internationally acclaimed Frazier Historical Arms Museum, it still houses an impressive collection of weaponry, including a long rifle owned by George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt’s “Big Stick,” and Geronimo’s bow, quiver, and arrows. Nowadays the focus has expanded, and patrons can now be immersed in the wider history of the commonwealth, watch live interpretive performances that depict famous Kentuckians, and participate in an array of bourbon experiences and events. The Bottle Hall holds a display of every bottle of Kentucky bourbon currently in production, and another features historic bottles from the past.
The Frazier’s program and exhibition calendars are impressive, and offer experiences covering a wide range of interests. Currently featured are the Lewis and Clark Experience, the Van Winkle Family Collection, and The Spirit of Kentucky, tracing bourbon’s history, craft, and culture. Some exhibitions require an additional ticket.
If you’re a fan of museum gift shops, the Frazier’s is exceptional, and it’s big. It features the usual T-shirts, hats, and trinkets, but also includes more creative souvenirs, like a selection of products made in Kentucky, including whiskey. The Frazier sells both current and past bottlings, and just perusing them is an experience in itself.
fraziermuseum.org
David Bradford House
Washington, Pennsylvania
Though not specifically a whiskey museum, visiting this National Historic Landmark puts you in the very center of the activity that led up to the Whiskey Rebellion, the first insurrection in American history. David Bradford (1762-1808), a successful local attorney and deputy attorney general for Washington County, was a rebel sympathizer who intercepted the U.S. Mail from Pittsburgh to see who was against them, a federal crime.
Wanted by the feds, Bradford escaped to the Spanish territory of Louisiana after the collapse of the rebellion and built a plantation, now known as The Myrtles, that claims to be the most haunted house in the country.
Built in 1788, the David Bradford House has been a museum since 1965. Docents dressed in period costumes lead tours, available Wednesdays to Saturdays from April through November. A visit here takes you back to experience the life of a relatively wealthy citizen on the western frontier who risked everything for a cause he believed in. The grounds contain a garden of 18th-century flowers and botanicals, a log wellhouse, and a summer kitchen.
Across Main Street is the Whiskey Rebellion Education and Visitor Center, which opened in 2021 and connects the Bradford story to the era of the rebellion via a walk-through timeline. Exhibits include a replica of a “cage bar” of the era, when it was necessary to protect the bartender from rowdy patrons, and artifacts owned and used by the rebels.
While in the area, don’t miss the new location of Liberty Pole Spirits, designed to look like a rebellion-era meetinghouse, and the first and only modern rickhouse in the state.
bradfordhouse.org
West Overton Village and Museums
Scottdale, Pennsylvania
There may be no better attraction in the country that represents the rise from agriculture to industry than this pre-Civil War village in the rolling Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania. It was settled in 1803 by the Oberholtzer family, and their son Abraham made this farm into a center for weaving coverlets and distilling rye whiskey. Whiskey proved so profitable that it became the manufacturing focus of the family, whose name now anglicized as Overholt.
The Overholts built a larger distillery nearby in Broad Ford in the mid-1800s and ran the two places concurrently. Though West Overton never reopened after Prohibition, Broad Ford did, and distilled Old Overholt until 1951. Now owned by Beam Suntory, Old Overholt has the distinction of being the oldest continuously distilled whiskey brand in the U.S.
Industrialist Henry Clay Frick, Abraham’s grandson, was born on the property, honed his business skills here, and saw the potential for turning coal into purified coke, a necessary component of the steelmaking process, thus linking whiskey to the rise of the U.S. as an industrial power. Henry’s daughter Helen purchased the property in the 1920s, preserving the site as it is today.
After all these years, distilling at West Overton resumed in 2020 with a 50-gallon interpretive distillery, bringing the property back to its rye whiskey roots. The 1859 mill and distillery building houses a museum that explores the lives of the workers who toiled here. A second-floor exhibit will open next year, and will feature a 200-plus Pennsylvania whiskey bottle collection and many artifacts relating to the state’s once-dominant place in American distilling.
westovertonvillage.org
George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, Virginia
The backstory of this place is likely familiar. Late in life, Washington hired Scotsman James Anderson to oversee his farming operation. Anderson, familiar with distilling in Scotland, recommended that Washington build his own distillery. Once completed, it soon became a powerhouse, producing almost 11,000 gallons of rye whiskey annually at its peak, making it the most profitable such endeavor on the estate. Anderson’s son John managed the operation and oversaw six enslaved Black distillers, known only as Hanson, Peter, Nat, Daniel, James, and Timothy.
Today’s distillery and gristmill are faithful replicas of the originals and operate exactly as they would have in the 18th century, using only the power of water and hands. Originally constructed in 1797, the stone distillery houses five copper pot stills. Mashing and fermenting take place in the same wooden vessels before being distilled into whiskey or fruit brandy.
There’s a lot to see here at Mount Vernon, so plan to spend the day roaming the estate, touring the mansion, and visiting George and Martha’s tomb.
mountvernon.org
