Fire Destroys Several Historic Buildings at the former Old Crow Distillery

 

A fire today at Glenns Creek Distilling, formerly Old Crow,
destroyed at least three historic buildings.

Today’s fire at Glenns Creek Distilling destroyed several historic buildings from the site’s previous life as the home of Old Crow.

Old Crow began at what is now Woodford Reserve. In the 1860s, it outgrew that original distillery. Two new distilleries were built, one just south of downtown Frankfort on the Kentucky River. The second, where today’s fire occurred, was southeast of the city on Glenn’s Creek near its confluence with the Kentucky River. They moved the Old Crow name there too, where it remained until the distillery closed in 1987.

When James Crow was alive, William Mitchell was his assistant distiller. He continued to make Old Crow using James Crow’s methods and trained the next generation of Crow distillers. Van Johnson was his cousin and protégé. When the new Old Crow Distillery opened, Mitchell ran things at first, then brought in Cousin Van. Johnson stayed there as master distiller until 1902, when he was replaced by his son, Lee.

After Prohibition, Old Crow became part of National Distillers, which had three distilleries in and around Frankfort. Old Crow was the largest. Soon the brand had resumed its place as America’s most popular bourbon. The plant was enlarged several times. Even after it stopped distilling in 1987, whiskey continued to be aged there for Jim Beam and others. 

Old Crow was the first fully-aged American whiskey manufactured on an industrial scale. It did for bourbon what Henry Heinz did for ketchup, Milton Hershey did for chocolate, and Charlie Post did for breakfast cereal. It was a new way to make a new kind of whiskey, the kind we drink today. 

Bourbon has lost an important part of its historic infrastructure.