The Kinsey Fire Observation Room

[ethangsmith]

I almost got a full bottle of Rittenhouse off EBay yesterday but got outbid with 1 second left. It was a green label BIB from the 1960's. Looked like good, dark whiskey! As a side note, I just got a 2 foot tall cardboard Philadelphia Whisky advertisement. It's going to need some help since it's torn in a few places, but I plan on fixing it as much as possible.

[ratcheer]

Sitting here tonight drinking something very special given me from my friend last summer who was in charge of marketing for Continantal Distilling back in the day!
Time Old Armagnac 30 year old Brandy, its says 30 years aged in Oak in France and bottled in France 82 proof and boy is it good! It is about 60 years old and I wish I had a case of it.

Dave, that reminds me of something I once read about Winston Churchill. He very frequently drank a bottle (!!) of extra aged (like, 100 years old) French brandy as he was reading, writing, and retiring for the night. I suppose that's great, if you can afford it.

Tim

[dave ziegler]

Dave, that reminds me of something I once read about Winston Churchill. He very frequently drank a bottle (!!) of extra aged (like, 100 years old) French brandy as he was reading, writing, and retiring for the night. I suppose that's great, if you can afford it.

Tim

Tim I am very fortunate to have been given this bottle and it is so good it is all but gone. I was to get another one but my friend who was high up in Marketing for Publicker is sick right now and most likely will not get to pa from Ca till next year.

There is nothing like a vintage Whiskey or Brandy, for me everything old is better!
Dave Z
----------------------------------------------------------------
Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey For Unhurried Moments

[dave ziegler]

On Monday afternoon I took Mike who lived behind the Plant when he was a kid for a tour again through Kinsey and got a few nice Pictures, I started at the Old Kinsey Bottling house, then Warehouse H and then into the 1966 Bottle house. I had permission so we were able to go in some places.
Here are some pictures
1.Old Wooden Platforms in the Kinsey #10 Rye Building still standing. This is where for many years Rittenhouse Rye was made.
2. Stenciling on upright about the Local union doing unloading.
3. Quick Aged Whisky stenciled on wood up right in #10 Rye Barn
4. What is left of the Old Post prohibition Kinsey Bottling House where all Continental Distilling Liquors where made till 1979 when the company stopped bottling spirits.
5. The door to the Power room in the Old Jacob G Kinsey Bottle House.
6. The old Kinsey Security shack at Kinsey moved off its base many years ago.
7. Inside what is left of the old Security shack.
8. The Alarm system in the Old security Shack.

It gets more painful everytime I go to Kinsey but I never know what I can save for History. I got a complete roof explosion proof Light assembly from the Old Bottle House this last trip as someone had taken it down it to steal for scrap it is now saved for History at Kinsey west!
Every time I walk through I think of the People of Kinsey, Ludy just turned 93 Monday I called him and sang Happy Kinsey Birthday to him!

I offten think of my Good long departed Friend Albert Rhoads and my Old Boss John Zuber!
Kinsey was a great place to work and Publicker/Continental Distilling was a great Company.
I will be posting some more pictures from inside the 1966 Bottling house on The My Memory thread soon!

It Seems All The Nicest people Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
Dave Z

[dave ziegler]

Thinking today about the Fire Observation room and what a great idea and safety thing it was. How Many companies in the 1940's would have thought or spent the money to build this room on one of the explosion proof warehouses at the high point of the Plant.
When they bought Kinsey Publicker went to work building the 14 explosion proof warehouses which were built from 1946/1947 and the Building that became the 1966 Bottling House was built in 1951 as warehouse U and made into the worlds largest Bottling house starting to be built inside in 1963/64.

The whole time this was going on in the early 1940's they were also putting sprinklers in every single one of the Old Kinsey buildings, even the maintaince barn. It was alot of work putting sprinkler pipes in all of the old Kinsey wood and brick warehouses, but it payed off in the fact there was never a fire in any of them, and even though abandon and are falling down while Publicker was there everything was always kept up.

Having worked in the yard gang I saw everything that was done on a daily basis to keep the place safe and well kept. Who would ever think that Si Neuman would die so suddenly in 1976 and the people that took it over would run it out of bussiness 10 years after his death 1986.

When I worked there I always thought as long as Si Neuman was in charge Kinsey and Publicker would continue. And in my heart I believe if he had not passed there would be a brand new giant still there today operating and that the plant would have gone on. Si Neuman above everyone else Loved that Plant and place. It was The Park like, beautiful Distillery on the River! In the companies first broshure He speaks of His Beautiful Kinsey Distillery in Montgomery County Pa. on the river.
Dave Ziegler
--------------------------------------------------------------------
It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[unclebunk]

Thinking today about the Fire Observation room and what a great idea and safety thing it was. How Many companies in the 1940's would have thought or spent the money to build this room on one of the explosion proof warehouses at the high point of the Plant.
When they bought Kinsey Publicker went to work building the 14 explosion proof warehouses which were built from 1946/1947 and the Building that became the 1966 Bottling House was built in 1951 as warehouse U and made into the worlds largest Bottling house starting to be built inside in 1963/64.

The whole time this was going on in the early 1940's they were also putting sprinklers in every single one of the Old Kinsey buildings, even the maintaince barn. It was alot of work putting sprinkler pipes in all of the old Kinsey wood and brick warehouses, but it payed off in the fact there was never a fire in any of them, and even though abandon and are falling down while Publicker was there everything was always kept up.

Having worked in the yard gang I saw everything that was done on a daily basis to keep the place safe and well kept. Who would ever think that Si Neuman would die so suddenly in 1976 and the people that took it over would run it out of bussiness 10 years after his death 1986.

When I worked there I always thought as long as Si Neuman was in charge Kinsey and Publicker would continue. And in my heart I believe if he had not passed there would be a brand new giant still there today operating and that the plant would have gone on. Si Neuman above everyone else Loved that Plant and place. It was The Park like, beautiful Distillery on the River! In the companies first broshure He speaks of His Beautiful Kinsey Distillery in Montgomery County Pa. on the river.
Dave Ziegler
--------------------------------------------------------------------
It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

Nice post, Dave. Wish I could have seen the place in its heyday. It really must have been something to behold.

[dave ziegler]

I am back been sick again with the Shingles and not going on line much. Two weeks ago I walked around Kinsey just looking at the ruin of it all. Here are a couple of Pictures of Stenciled writting on the Barrel Elevator in Warehouse K which was open that day.
1.!0-5-1954 with the old Brewery workers Union Logo
2. Smitty Worked Here,Glen Smith the Government man one of the Nicest People you could ever meet!
3. More stencil testing on the wall list of dates 1954.

Walking around I just could hardly come to grips how bad the Place is, I keep saying to my self say it isn't So. Every Building leaking last of the barrels falling apart and Vandels destroying the Place. Having started work there back in sept 1966 it seems so unreal. I keep looking to see stuff going on in my mind. last night I dreamed I was with Jack Rayser and we were looking for Nickname Bookie William Haring his nick name because He ran horse bets for us at lunch time! The Place looked like the old days and when I woke up we had been looking for time cards of all things.
Dave Z
===============================================
It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[Jono]

An old Anglo Saxon poem...The Ruin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ruin

"This masonry is wondrous; fates broke it
courtyard pavements were smashed; the work of giants is decaying.
Roofs are fallen, ruinous towers,
the frosty gate with frost on cement is ravaged,
chipped roofs are torn, fallen,
undermined by old age. The grasp of the earth possesses
the mighty builders, perished and fallen,
the hard grasp of earth, until a hundred generations
of people have departed. Often this wall,
lichen-grey and stained with red, experienced one reign after another,
remained standing under storms; the high wide gate has collapsed.
Still the masonry endures in winds cut down
persisted on__________________
fiercely sharpened________ _________
______________ she shone_________
_____________g skill ancient work_________
_____________g of crusts of mud turned away
spirit mo________yne put together keen-counselled
a quick design in rings, a most intelligent one bound
the wall with wire brace wondrously together.
Bright were the castle buildings, many the bathing-halls,
high the abundance of gables, great the noise of the multitude,
many a meadhall full of festivity,
until Fate the mighty changed that.
Far and wide the slain perished, days of pestilence came,
death took all the brave men away;
their places of war became deserted places,
the city decayed. The rebuilders perished,
the armies to earth. And so these buildings grow desolate,
and this red-curved roof parts from its tiles
of the ceiling-vault. The ruin has fallen to the ground
broken into mounds, where at one time many a warrior,
joyous and ornamented with gold-bright splendour,
proud and flushed with wine shone in war-trappings;
looked at treasure, at silver, at precious stones,
at wealth, at prosperity, at jewellery,
at this bright castle of a broad kingdom.
The stone buildings stood, a stream threw up heat
in wide surge; the wall enclosed all
in its bright bosom, where the baths were,
hot in the heart. That was convenient.
Then they let pour_______________
hot streams over grey stone.
un___________ _____________
until the ringed sea (circular pool?) hot
_____________where the baths were.
Then is_______________________
__________re, that is a noble thing,
to the house__________ castle_______"

[dave ziegler]

Lets say it is a typical start of the day at Kinsey in Early Nov 1969 6:45 AM. I would walk down through where the big metal gates are now, they were not there when I started there. Turn to My Right and walk past the Old Kinsey maintaince Barn built by Jake Kinsey. Turn to the left and go in the Ferrmenter area of Old DSP-Pa-12 to ring in at the Time clock.

Next go down the old stairs to the tunnel where my Locker was, put on my coveralls and Work shoes. In the winter we were always given WWII Sub Zero army surplus coats. Way different the ones today they were light green Sueded heavy coats and I wish I had my old one now! They had giant zippers and were very durable. One thing 90% of us always wore was either an Old Time Style Engineers hat of Welders cap, the old blue stripped ones. They were worn because of the Rust and dirt in the racks that would get in you hair if you did not wear a hat. We got all our stuff at a discount at the Old Workmens supply in down town Pottstown because we worked at Publicker. Publicker gave us our Coveralls and coats and we got a big discount on work shoes through Publicker if you went to workmens supply.

We would sit till starting time and I would listen to the old timers talk about Kinsey through the years, or I would sneak off and explore the still building if I was early there.

Once it was starting time when I was in the yard gang our boss John Zuber would tell each of us what we were doing that day and take us in the Old blue 1947 flat head six cylinder ford pickup to our work area if it was far. Could be doing a last hand mowing of the lawns if it snowed shoveling and cleaning walk ways, or just hauling stuff to the dump down near the river.

One Nov we were given the job of sweeping out all the back explosion proof warehouses fire escape stair wells. What a mess dead Pidgeons and lots of dust and no masks those days we were blowing dirt out of our noses for a week. We did not complain we were thankful we had a great job that paid well! Sometimes a rail car of Coal would come in for the boilers and our job was to unload it. You would climb into the car and knock lose as much sticking coal you could till you could just reach the top of the rail car wall to get back out on the outside car ladder. That was the one Job I Hated!

Sometimes we would haul bronken glass down to the dump or as I have spoken of before gone in a certain building to clean it for use. I still remember fondly going into the Old Jacob G Kinsey Bottling house to clean the floors and equipment for the girls to come over and start bottling Liqours.
The old bottle house and the Still were my alltime favorite buildings! The Ladies always called the Old Bottle house HAPPY HOUSE mostly because they could sneak a drink there easier.

Another job we had on the yard gang was hauling the metal Barrel racks away from the warehouses they were being torn down in. We would take them down to the Old steer pens going to the river and put then under cover there in sections on the Old Wagon pulled by an 8-n ford tractor.

I want to just let people know what the every day life was working there while I am here to tell it. I hope this has been enjoyable I am going to talk about working in the warehouses on my Memories thread.
Dave Z
==============================================
Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey
For Unhurried Moments

[dave ziegler]

Days Like today in fall, cool and breezy were always nice at The Kinsey Distillery. Clear Crisp Breezes from the river coming up through the Plant. On a Nov 10 back in the day we would be dumping as much as possible for the coming Holidays. The Lead men would have lists of Dumpings for each gang and the 3 old Red 1941 Ford Flat trucks would be litterly flying back and forth hauling Barrels from warehouses that had no dump Trough to ones that did.
We would travel from every warehouse on our list pulling barrels and dumping them or loading them on the trucks. I remember seeing one time one of the drivers went to fast and one Barrel fell off one of the flat trucks landing on its side. Amazingly it did not break and was lifted back up on the truck.

During the Months of early Oct and Nov it was dump, dump and more dump.
When I was in the yard gang we would have a list of dump sites for the next week and we would go and sweep the floor all around the troughs that dumping was going happen. We would also dump the old char out of the trough Screens into trash barrels.

Nov and Dec were very exciting months and good days at Continental Distillings (Kinsey Distillery).
Dave Z
================================================== =====
Join The Swing To Kinsey