A trip in to the Old Continental Bottle house 1966 State of the Art

[dave ziegler]

This morning before I go take a walk at Kinsey I have scaned some of my Many pieces of Company paper work, and I will post on all 3 threads the things that go with that thread!
Here are some papers from the Bottling house Files
1. Original Office copy of letter asking permission to make the Philadelphia Blended Whiskey Bicentenial Libery Bell Decanter and
2. The office copy of the return Letter giving permission to do it
3. The office original copy of a letter to Barton Distillers with a list on the back of Stainless tanks the company has for sale, the list was to big to fit here.
4. Inver House Napkins
5. Inver House Napkins front & Back

I am ever so thankful that I was able to save these things from the Kids or the dump for History. I will now post some stuff on the fire Tower thread and the Memories thread.
Dave Z
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Philadelphia The heritage Whiskey

[dave ziegler]

Well I did what I love to do today I took a walk around Kinsey! And the first pictures are in the incoming Black tanks for the 1966 bottleling House then some of the Old Phillip Singer Bottling machines sitting with weeds growing on them on the front dock and finally a picture of lenth of the front dock wanted to get some more pictures before the weeds take over for the summer. There are 9 of the big black incoming whiskey tanks and a big round silver one and then the tall white one which is a Vat for something I have a shot of it and of inside it. And then a shot of the whole front Dock sideways.
Pictures are as follows
1. Sign on one of the big black tanks
2.Incoming whiskey lines from tanks
3. Looking down through the tanks
4. Catwalk to Silver tank with Lights to light the area up
5. Big black Tanks looking up to upper level cat walk
5. Big Silver Tank
7. Big White tank that is a Vat
8. Inside the Door on the White tank
9. Looking down the front dock from far end
10. 3 Phillip Singer Bottling Machines with weeds covering them
11. Another Singer that looks ok and has not been taken over by weeds yet.
12. Looking from the other end down the from dock of the 2 foot Ball fields long Continental Distilling 1966 Bottling House.
Everytime I walk here I just can not believe that it has fallen into such ruin and I have great anger that the Man that ownes it now and left it to rot. I just do not understand why he just walked away from it shutting everything down and leaving it to fall into ruin.
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

This past Sunday I took a hand held Pipe cutter with me to the Plant and went back in the Old Kinsey Post prohibition Bottling house about 1933/34 and got the double Explosion proof switch housing off the wall I then mounted a pilot Light from the stair well of Warehouse P and one of the original Switches that was on it including the old time bobon type brass flip switch from the late 1930's/40's. I could not get the piece of Conduit off as I have to small a Pipe wrench so took it to work and asked the Company Electric Dept Boss and Electrian Paul if he could get The piece off for me.

Well he said not only will I get it off I will wire it this morning for you, well not only did he wire it but he wired it with a heavy 3 prong cord so it would be up to standard so I could use it in my Office so now not only do I have all types of them at home wired for my two Hole outlets but I have this one to enjoy on my Desk. He thought it was very Cool too!

When I go to the Plant I turn out the office lights and when I come back it reminds me of walking into the old warehouses where some of these glowed all the time you when you threw switches others came on.
It brings back the old days as soon as I see it lit in the dark!

People have already come down to check it out and they all like it! it is my way of Keeping our Little Kinsey Bottling house still in my mind it takes me to the day a 19 yr old walked in there to clean and was in awe of the Old Phillip Singer Bottling Machines running tasty Liquors.

It was a very special little Bottling House and every drop of Caffe,Amareta and Peanut Lolita Liquor were bottled there and as I said it ran from the Day Mr kinsey built it till the last day Continental Distilling owned it and bottled spirits. And mr Kinsey Bottled His Rye and other things there in it the few years before He lost the place and it was sold by a silent Auction.

Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest people Drink Old Hickory
America's most magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

Working For Continenmtal Distilling back in the 1960's I always felt that we were almost always the leader in Ideas. In late 1963/early1964 when Publicker made the Desision to make the all Purpose Explosion Proof single floor warehouse U into a modern state of the Art Bottling House, two Foot ball fields long.

I am of the Opinon that it lead to the many Modern Bottling Houses operating Now such as the Big One at HH which I think opened just after we built and Opened ours in Late 1965/early 1966. Also we had a good working relationship with HH back then and MR Charles Medley and many Ky and other Distillers. And thiose who bought and bottled themselves.

And I am sure there would have been people coming to tour Our Bottling house from many Distillerys as It seemed there were always groups coming to look the place over and see how it worked. When It opened in early Spring 1966 fully it had 11 continous Bottling Lines, separate lines & Tanks incoming for every type of Spirits we made and a full warehousing area for all the finished Products.

We had one thing that I do not know if anyone Distilling Has today and that was that we could Load 3 Rail Box Cars and do many trucks also from the Docks of the bottle House. When I started there in fall 1966 I was in awe of the bottle House. it was so dam Big and around 230 to 250 people worked there in two shifts and we could do our days worth of Bottling and someone Like Seagrams also at the same time.

It was a powerhouse of a bottling Works and each area was separated by Bulkhead walls except the area at the far incoming end where the lines and tanks were the Lines started there at a bulkhead wall and traveled on through two more bulkhead safety walls and came out through the last one near the front Kinsey Buildings which was warehousing and Shipping.

All Boxes Labels and supplies were stored in the Bottle house it was a total self operating Unit and all Bottling operations except Liquor were done there cased there and shipped from there.

When It opened it was said to be The Most Modern Bottling House In The World. We had our own on site Modern lab, Quality control, Nurse and Medical Dispensery in the Bottling. Power House large maintaince Room and Large Lunch room in there!

Also the Telephones at the tank area were explosion proof we had Battery Power emergency lights high up on walls to light areas in an emergency and every safety setup known of in those days and tons of sprinkling and fire fighting Power on site.

About 500 People worked in there on the two shifts and were paid well and for the most part had good lives due to working for Publicker.
And in those days our Products were considered some of the very Best.
This Bottle House made the Phila Bigler Street one look like a toy!

So Many Times I wish could Go back to the Future there just for one day to look at and watch everything in there and talk to the great people who worked there back then, to me writting about Kinsey and Publicker is a work of Love!
Dave Z
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It seems All the Nicest people Drink Old hickory
America's Most magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

walking around Kinsey on Sunday Morning I was thinking alot about the Big 1966 Bottling House and I really think it was the proto type for todays large selfcontained Bottling houses of one floor long and having everything from Shipping to warehousing of finished product all in one building. Being able to ship from rail and truck and with every then thought of Safety Feature right down to low power emergensey escape lighting!

Also having extra capacity for jobs bottling to be done for other Companies and being made Explosion proof also.

When built from what I was told by Ludy had a large part of the building with metal racks like the other Warehouses with Barreled aging Whiskey and also some general storing there and shipping. Then around 1964 they started the process of removing the racks and making this 2 football field long building into the Largest Bottling house in the world back then.


I just talked to Ludy and He told Me that it opened in around Mid 1965 and was going full tilt by 1966 the year it officialy opened and I started working there. He left the warehouse Dept and went there in 1965 to be a maintaince Man and helped set up the Singer and other Bottling machines so that by 1966 everything would be totally done.

The Bottling House had its own boss's and Nurse and dispensary seperate from the Plant itself. And its own Lunch room and Locker room. Everything needed there was in the building new cases of Bottles filled Bottles and total shipping dept and warehousing.

It was a thing Of beauty to see operating and all 11 lines filling bottles tanks everywhere and tons of Out put. Before becoming the Bottling house it on my blue print in 1961 of the Plant was called all purpose Warehouse U.
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest people Drink old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

Everytime I go to Kinsey it seems so impossible to see the 2 foot ball field long 1966 Bottling house just sitting there with trees and weeds taking it over. What a shame that once Continental was gone that this man who lets it rot did not sell it to someone who could have walked in and made something of all of it.

Everything was still in working order and the Boiler rooms were still working and covered by the granfather act so The Bottling house could have been used for almost any kind of Bottling and at One time Oscar Mayer had talked to Continental about leasing a couple of the Explosion proof warehouses and making them into large Food freezers due to their heavy build and natural coolness but something went wrong as I read were they broke the contract they had to do this on some old Letter Head I found at the plant and this rotten Person bought it to let it rot after Continental closed.

He bought it in 1982 when they had started bottling Antifreeze and they leased the whole front plus a couple of warehouses but he kept trying to up their lease and once they went out just fired everyone working there for him including security shut everything down in 1986 and walked away to let it rot now for 23 yrs. I can't understand buying something to destroy it How someone like this can be well off is weird why let it fall to ruin then want 20 million for it.

In my opinion He must Be nuts! But everytime I go there it kills me to see it like it is. I am hoping my Friends will let me go in the Big Bottle house this summer to get some real good pictures of what is left as there are alot of things I did not get pictures of. It is in total ruin in there and when it rains very wet.
Dave Z
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Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey For Unhurried Moments

[dave ziegler]

Here is something I never thought I would see again or ever own a full Bottle of Our Glen Mavis Blended Scotch. I was able to buy this full bottle on Line and it is being shipped to me this week. In all the yrs I have had a computer I have never seen any Glen Mavis Scotch on line.
Here are a couple of Pictures
1. Front of Quart Bottle
2. Back Of Bottle
3. the back label which is very different as it Has Glen Mavis Distillers Greenwich CT and all the ones I have empty or have seen always have Glen Mavis Distillers Phila.

But the Corporate Offices for Continental Distilling where in Greenwitch CT and that means this is either an early production from Scotland or one of the last ever from Linfield as all were bottled in Linfield that I know of. Once I get it I will look for the yr date on the bottom and that will most likely tell the story.
Dave Z
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Inver House Scotch Soft As A Kiss

[dave ziegler]

Today I decided I had to take a walk through Kinsey after 4 weekis I just plain missed going there so I went over and got some pictures here are some for the Old 1966 State of Art Bottle House it is being taken over by weeds!

1. Bottling house water tower
2. Weeds taking over the Bottling house
3. I decided to climb the stair case to the Cat walks around the Incoming Liquor Tanks
4. Tanks going up to cat walks
5. Looking down the Cat walk stairs
6.Looking Up at cat walkes above
7. Looking Across the 1966 Bottling House roof from the Cat Walk stairs
8. Tank Capacity incoming Whiskey Tank
9. Looking down through ground tanks on walk way.
10. Plate with the Name of the Local Company that put the tanks in back in spring 1965 for Continental Distilling
11. Tank level meter
12. Looking inside one of the incoming Tanks
13. Inside the Tank
14. Walking toward the incoming Spirits tanks Weeds and Trees all around them.

I really tired myself out today but enjoyed going to Kinsey again for History and once there decided I was going to go up the incoming Tanks stair way to the cat walks as I had not done that yet!
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

A note on Sundays Pictures 3 and 4 the incoming black Bottle house Tanks. They have what looks like a Tar cover on them like a coat made to fit on them. I talked to a projet Engineer Friend of mine as I wondered why the Tar jackets as none of the other Outside storage tanks had that. He said he thought that was to keep the in coming temporatures of the Whiskey and Spirite more stable also insulating from heat and keeping evaporation lower in final operation to be bottled.

I always wondered why They were black when I looked Sunday they looked like they were fitted on the Tanks after the tanks were put there I could slip my hand under them and I would think Piesol Pine did all the work as their Plate in on the tanks stating 1965.

The Bottle House opened Late 1965 and Bigler Street Bottle House Phila was still running and they started hiring big time in 1966 the year I started there and went full speed then closing Bigler down.

This looks like another inovative Idea by Continental Distilling and another reason to be sad such a great and Inovative company is no more.
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[fricky]

I would expect a black coating or covering to absorb heat.