Urban Decay: The Whiskey Distillery

Well.. I was doing pretty good at getting these posts in every Wednesday, but umm, I think I nodded off on the laptop last night. Oops. I'll make it up for you with a good story....

When I was younger, my family use to go camping at campground that was located along the Yough river. If you drove into town, there was a spot where you could launch in your boat, raft, tube, or any flotation device of your choice. We took these floats down the river. It was a pretty long, calm float back down the river to the campsite. Along the way, we stopped for a picnic lunch alongside the river. One time, we saw these very interesting skeletal remains of a building and decided to check it out. I was very young and a little nervous about. At the time, the taller structure had stairs in which you could go all the way up. A little scary and dangerous but it was an adventure. Fast forward to a lot of years later and all I have are these memories and some old photographs from a disposable camera. Only difference is that now exploring abandoned establishments is one of my favorite past times. To me, they are the gems of my photography portfolio. So thanks to my fancy lil' smart phone, years later, I was able to get on a map app and view the general area from a satellite view. I dropped a pin on the area I thought looked about right and the GPS led me right to it. Ah, the magic of technology, right? After revisiting this childhood memory of mine, I did a little research. Here are the facts: A. Overholt & Co. was built in 1854 and is located in Broad Ford, Pennsylvania along the Youghiogheny River on the outskirts of Connellsville. This is where the American Rye Whiskey "Old Overholt" was originally distilled. The complex consisted of an office building, granary and grain elevators connected by conveyor to a series of joined buildings; the boiler house and engine room, distillery and fermenting houses, machine shop and drying house and a number of warehouses and bottling houses. This particular plant was licensed as a distiller of medicinal spirits and operated during the prohibition. It is still being distilled today under Jim Beam Brands Co. Without further ado.. here is the good stuff:

That was fun. I hope to add plenty more locations to this list. Keep your eyes peeled for me! I'll be back tomorrow with a look back on November via Instagram. It was so weird writing December on some paperwork today!

xo, Linds

All photos on this post are copyright of Lindsey Evans.