Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey Gets a Heritage Center in its Historic Home

While Kentucky dominates American whiskey today, there was once another bastion of whiskey production in the U.S.: Pennsylvania. Hundreds of distilleries were scattered across the state in the 19th century and there was a healthy mix of producers large and small, with many farmers-turned-distillers as well. Rye was the state’s reigning style, especially in the southwestern Monongahela River valley region. To honor this rich history, Suntory Global Spirits has opened the James B. Beam Pennsylvania Whiskey Heritage Center in partnership with the nonprofit historic site West Overton Village & Museum in Scottdale, Pennsylvania.

Suntory’s involvement in the project hails from Beam’s connection to Pennsylvania rye through Old Overholt, a brand it acquired in 1987 that’s one of the oldest whiskey brands in the U.S. It was founded back in 1810 by Abraham Overholt, whose family settled in West Overton in 1800 and began farming 263 acres of land there. These days, Beam makes Old Overholt in Clermont, Kentucky, but its roots remain in Pennsylvania, with special emphasis placed on that history recently; this past April, for instance, Beam debuted A. Overholt, a rye made with the same mashbill that Overholt himself used in 1810.

As for the new James B. Beam Pennsylvania Whiskey Heritage Center, it offers a slew of guest experiences, at the center of which is the Sam Komlenic Gallery—personal collection of Pennsylvania whiskey historian and Whisky Advocate copy editor and contributor Sam Komlenic—now home to the largest publicly accessible collection of artifacts related to Pennsylvania’s whiskey making history, with more than 450 objects on display, the majority of which come from Komlenic, with the remainder supplemented by West Overton. Included among them are more than 270 whiskey bottles spanning from the late 19^th to mid-20th centuries, from Pennsylvania distilleries including Overholt, S. Dillinger & Sons, Large, Gibson, Guckenheimer, Sam Thompson, Schenley, Continental, and more. Also on exhibit are historic barrels, advertisements, documents, and whiskey memorabilia, like branded playing cards and matchbooks. If you’d like help navigating the 40 distilleries and some 450 total artifacts on display, an in-galley app is available as a virtual guide.

Komlenic grew up in Ruffs Dale, Pennsylvania, home to the ruins of the Samuel Dillinger Distillery. As a kid, old warehouses painted with names of distillers past—Dillinger, Thomas Moore, and Old Yock—fascinated him, and he was eventually hooked on Pennsylvania whiskey lore. He started collecting once he got his driver’s license (50-plus years ago); he’d head to local antique shops and flea markets looking specifically for brewery and distillery artifacts. “My dad worked for a local brewery, and I wanted to start researching Pennsylvania’s deep brewing history, but soon met some other guys who had already been doing it for years,” he says. “Knowing I’d missed that boat, I re-focused on the [state’s] even deeper history of distilling rye whiskey.” While his first bottle collection (all of which are empty) now sits at the new gallery, he’s started a second, which counts about 10 new bottles to date.

In addition to the gallery, the Center also features The Overholt Stateroom lounge. Here, a modern bar, antique furniture and décor, vintage and current bottlings, and an Abraham Overholt mural are on display. The lounge is available to rent and will be open to guests during special private events. (On July 26, Komlenic will lead guests through a vintage Pennsylvania rye whiskey flight featuring pours of historically significant whiskeys, including 1908 vintage Old Overholt Rye–Mellon Family Private Bottling, 1940 Old Overholt Cask Strength rye, 1942 Old Farm straight rye, 1946 Old Overholt Bottled in Bond rye, 1941 King’s Wedding 25 year old Bottled in Bond rye, and 1970s Sam Thompson straight rye.)

The West Overton Museum is housed in a former distillery and grist mill that was built in 1859. The village, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserves 19 historic buildings across 40 of the 263 acres originally owned by Abraham Overholt and has given visitors the sole opportunity to tour the Overholt Homestead since 1928. In 2020, the site opened its educational distillery—West Overton Distilling—making it the first post-Prohibition producer of Monongahela rye whiskey, in the tradition of the Overholts. West Overton Village & Museum is open to the public from Thursday to Sunday now through the end of October. Admission ($18 for adults; $16 for seniors and military; $12 for children ages 6-17) includes access to the Museum and Heritage Center, a guided tour of the Overholt Family Homestead, and a visit to the educational distillery.