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

[dave ziegler]

Well I have been thinking about Kinsey all day and now taking a break at work to post some more of my Pictures from inside the 1966 Bottling house from this past Sunday.
1.Down stairs in the General Offices in the 1966 Bottling House
2.Engineering room in offices Blue Print Desk
3. Old Word processer in General office
4.,5. Rooms in General office
6. Very Old early Computer in General Office
7.,8. Dispensary Old Medicines still on cart and in cabinet
9.Locker Room
10. Tank Platform behind wall to room B
11. Bottle Line going through wall to room B
12. I climbed up the platform for the Whiskey Heaters and Water Surge tanks which are square in shape in this picture Whiskey Heaters No. 1.2,3
13. Whiskey Heater # 2
14.Pipes running out of area
Tomorrow I
will be posting lots of Pictures in this area including the Water Surge tanks!
Dave Z
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Philadelphia the Heritage Whiskey

[dave ziegler]

Well today is a nice fall day and it brings back so many memories of this time of year working at Kinsey! This was always the time when we shipped so many good Spirit Products for the Holidays ahead.

I can still see all those rail cars coming across the Companys rail bridge to be put in front of the 1966 Bottling House! And the ever flowing in trucks to take products out for all the USA and abroad too!

So In the spirit of the Old days here are the rest of my Sunday Oct 18 Pictures inside the State of Art 1966 Bottling House.
1.,2.Water Surge tanks on platform I climbed up to get these shots.
3.Surge Tanks on Platform from the floor
4. Low Voltage Emergency Light a very new thing for those days on ceiling incoming spirits area for safety in case of lost power or fire, My safety friend here at work tells me it was unhread of for a company to put them in back in those days but Publicker Did.
5.Old green Job area desk sitting in Incoming Spirits area.
6. Scotch Chiller
7.Blender tank all these shots are in the Incoming Spirits area the Black tanks are on the outside of the wall to this area
8.Black No. 1 Water heater
9.,10,11,The room that houses all the Power circuts a shot looking in, one shot of the Large structure and one of the boxes holding switches
12.Another Tank
13. A second large tank with stairs going up to them
14.Long row of Pumps in the incoming Spirits and water area
15. Explosion Proof control boxes of some sort
16.Another shot from the other side of the Old Green Job desk
17. One of the Bottling Lines starting in room A start area
18. Another picture of Pipes from the water Surge tank Platform
19. Large Open area in Room A dark but big

This is it for the Sunday Pictures I am going back soon for some shots I have not got yet as it is such a big building. Two Football fields Long and over a 1/2 football field wide.

Everytime I get in the Plant is such a remembering thing as memories just jump out to my mind. I can almost see the people there even though they are long gone in my Mind I remember and remembering is great Joy seeing it like it is now is very Hard and sad!
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

Early this moring I spoke to Randy Our safety officer where I work I showed him some of the Pictures of Safety equipment that were in the 1966 Bottling House.

Then I asked him since he is a safe work place Expert what he thought, he said the emergency Lights the tags to lock out electric Boxes and machines I have shown him in my Pictures and even to have sprinklers above the hole in the wall at the lines end to prevent a fire in your Whiskey cased storage area were way ahead of the times 1966 through 1986.

He told me He was amazed at the forthought that was put into the building of the bottling house from Old all purpose warehouse U and He said when it opened by looking at my Pictures it had to be one of the all time safest Bottling house in the mid 1960's.

He said those days people tried to get by with as little as they could and our saftey equipment was why there was never a fire in the plant explosion or Bad injury from either.

I am very Proud to have worked there and even more proud of our saftey record back in those great days of yesteryear!
Dave Z
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Old Hickory America's Finest Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

As I walked in Kinsey on Sunday I noticed that the weeds and trees are starting to die off for the winter and you can slmost see the front Dock of the Big 2 foot ball field long 1966 Bottling house again.

Here are two shots of the Bottle house front first and the back side second. I thought right away when I took the dock picture of how this time of year back in the day there would have been 3 box cars sitting there to be loaded with our many Spirits being shipped out for the Holidays coming!

Sadly there are no trucks and no box cars and not even a rail bridge anymore but in my Heart and Mind they are all there with the hustle of hundreds of people with one goal in Mind making and shipping the Best spirits out for Thanksgiving and Christmas and of course New Years.
Dave Z
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It Seems All the Nicest people Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

When I walk by the 1966 Bottling House I always have to wonder what if
Mr. Neuman had not died. I know one thing the man that owns the plant now would never have gotten it to destroy it.

Anyone with some sense would have kept things turned on and tried to market the bottle House for Home products again and did some work on the warehouses, all they would have had to do to make them useable would have been to put new frieght elevators in place of the Barrel Elevators. They had such thick walls they would have made great Frozen food lockers and at one time before Publicker sold to him they almost got some of them leased to Oscar Mayer I found a paper to that effect but Oscar Mayer pulled out at the last moment. What a shame This destroyer Of Kinsey Would never have got his hands on the Place. He bought it for about 3 or 4 Million and now in ruin he wants 20 Million he is a modern day Pirate in my book. It will go down History that this man was totaly the cause of destruction of The Kinsey Distillery

But sadly He shut it all down and left a sign and phone number and let it fall apart now 23 years later. I wish so many times I would have had lots of money so I could have saved the place back when it was saveable. I in my heart can see the front Buildings the still the Old Bottle house and silo's and wood and brick warehouses a living museum and the Bottle house and the rest of the Explosion proof Warehouses made into Codo's if there was no Industrial use to make them into. I even have Names "The Kinsey Living History of Distilling Museum of Pa" and " The Condo's At Kinsey Distillery".

Many people each year could have come to take a tour of the Historic Distilling area and the grounds would have made a lovely park around the Condo's the 3 Houses could have been sold and other homes could have been built in the Back for those who wanted the peacefulness of being miles from the road traveling in by a large private Cement Road that runs in through the plant. The River area could have had docks for Boating and Picnic tables. The grounds were perfect till He got the place.

Even Q Warehouse with the fire tower room could have been marketed as having a lovely roof room that was heated with beautiful views of the area for those who chose to have a condo in that Building.

So there sits the 1966 bottle house 2 foot Ball fields Long and 1/2 a foot ball field wide rotting away, as are all the warehouses.

The year 1986 was a good year for most bussiness and I am sure if he would have stayed there and tried sell it he could have it but no He went back to NYC and lets it rot for 23 yrs while he collects loss that kind of a person is far worse then some one who does not work at all, in the fact that he could have done something with it back then that would have created jobs but He chose to destroy Kinsey!

I know I am a dreamer but If you ever saw what Kinsey was back then you would agree so much could have been done but Now it all sits falling apart.


Oh That Kinsey Distillery Could go back to what it once was
A Place To Work That you Could Really Love!
Dave Z
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Join The Swing To Kinsey

[dave ziegler]

No y6ear can end without a trip to Kinsey! Here are some pictures I shot this afternoon Dec 28 in the Continental Distilling 1966 Bottle house.
I took 64 piictures so this is just 9 of them I will be posting the rest in the next couple of days.
1.The Bottle House Laboratory
2.Looking down through room B
3.Looking the other direction in room B
4,5,6, In the Laboratory
7,8,9 The Nurses station in the Bottle house

I had lost lots time so I have shots of all kinds of things to post yet, as I was finishing my Flashlight started to go dead so I had to use my last one to get out. The Place is so bad and so damp and dusty I had to get out and get some air but I had a good time just being there. I have shots of tanks Platforms machines all kinds of stuff to post here yet.
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Niicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

Here are five more of the Pictures I took the last time I was in Kinsey a couple of weeks ago. Everything is so ruined in the Big Bottle House it breaks my heart seeing it so badly off. I wish I could save Kinsey but time has taken its toll and the days of old are gone but the memories continue for me!

1. Incoming Chiller Lines
2. In the state of Art Labortatory
3. The Lab
4. The Lab
5. The Lab
It used to be one of the very best inplant distillery Labs it now is in total Ruin a sad and terrible thing.






Dave Z.
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Kinsey The Unhurried Whisky For Unhurried Moments

[dave ziegler]

Earler today when I wrote on the Memories thread I forgot about a Picture I took of something special I have in my garage. So I am posting it here as it sure belongs here.
1. Picture one the 1966 Bottling house time clock and its cover
2. The time clock with an old card in it.

I was fourtune enough to have my friends get me the original time clock from the 1966 Continetal Bottling house, I have not had a chance to clean it up but boy does it bring back memories!
There were two of these one in the Old Dsp-Pa-12 still where I rang in and this one in the bottle house. And thankfully it is saved and safely at my home Kinsey west!

When I look at it I think of all my friends that rang out at it every day. Ludy spent many a year ringing out at it. Bud Berky Walt Harrington in his years in Bottling and so many more. I am so glad it will not be smashed by vandels! I hope to make a stand and mount it and put a card in it like I did for the picture after I clean it up.

If I could have I would have moved Dsp-Pa-12 to my back yard that is how much the place meant to me. But by writing I can give all of you the feel of working there.
Dave Z
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Kinsey The Unhurried Whisky For Unhurried Moments

[dave ziegler]

To look at the 1966 state of art bottling house today is to never know what an amazing place it was back in the day. When it opened in sept 1966 it was the most modern, highest output bottling house in all the world. There was nothing in Spirits we could not do. So for me it is shock whenever I get to go to Kinsey and see it as it is now. Time, it closed forever in fall 1986 24 years ago and vandels have destroyed. What was in the year 1966 something the Distilled Spirits world was talking about excitedly, it was the crown jewel of Kinsey. Now all that is left is ruins.

There are times I get so mad at the guy who owns the place for leaving it get like this, and it to be at the mercy of vandels I just shake my head. Millions of dollars of bottles never to be used smashed by punks. Stainless tanks sitting when some other distiller would love to have them for more capacity it is mind boggling. Its a good thing Mr Neuman can not see this as it would have been horrifiying to Him.

Every day I get a little older I realise a bit more that Kinsey's days are numbered and so I keep adventuring there in hope of pictures I have not gotten and things for History to save!

In 1966 600 People worked at Kinsey and 90% of them in the 1966 State of the Art Bottling house. There will never be a place like Kinsey again and I am glad I worked there in those exciting days from 1966.
Dave Z
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Join the Swing To Kinsey
The Unhurried Whisky For Unhurried Moments

[dave ziegler]

I am hoping soon to get back in the 1966 Bottle house for some more pictures, I am posting 3 pictures today
1. These were our Old Hickory Coffee carfe's which came with an owners manual on how to use them once empty to make Hot Toddies!
2., 3. This was a special Blend of straight Only whiskys that was distilled in Belguim and shipped to Linfield and Bottled there. This past winter a friend found an Old one 1970's bottled in Linfield. It is a full Bottle and it was his dads and he gave it to me I have opened it and find it to be very GOOD smooth and flavorful.

We had so many brands that there are times when I find ones new to me. Somewhere on this site someone was talking about light whisky's bought by brown Forman back in the Old days and I can tell you where they got that Whisky it was Ours we gave up on the so called Light Whisky and when I get a chance I will look for that thread and connect the dots so to speak. But It was Continental Distilling's Light whisky they bought for that project!
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon