My Memories of Kinsey Distilling

[dave ziegler]

Hello Ethan and Rod looking forward to a trip there very soon before the weeds get to bad to go anywhere. Been thinking about the old days and working there. This time of year if no snow in the yard gang it would be a whole lot of sweeping and I would be vollinteering to do the Old DSP-Pa-12 still.

I can never forget the first day ringing out at the time clock in the still and seeing them feed the giant crape and sucker fish they had put in the old cyprus fermenter there. The one guy said to me when your turn comes you have to buy only Wonder Bread for the Fish!

At end of the day we would ride down on the back of the blue 1951 ford pickup the yard gang used. Later when I was in the warehouses we would ride on the back of the old 1953 Dodge flat bed truck!

The place was big about 200 acres then so you did not want to miss the truck. Mike Zuno drove the old Dodge truck. The winter Jackets they got us were really warm an Army green Corderoy sub zero jacket. When the winter winds came up from the river you needed them.

Also the warehouses were cold so you wore them the whole time you worked and they got riped doing the work we did I had a new one every year. Wish I had one of them now! We also were given green coveralls to wear as the barrels were very dirty and you kept your clothes clean that way. They were great days for a 19 year old and I am proud I worked there.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

I can't wait for our next trip! I'll have to start stocking up on batteries now!

[spiderblues]

Looking forward to it too! I have a new 4 Sevens flashlight I want to use in there. 280 Lumens:)

Shoot us a PM when you think you may go!

[mike22487]

Dave, My trip is official, I have the plane ticket in hand, I have a new headlight and I will be giving you a call on Wednesday after I land. You are such an asset to the history of this place.

[ethangsmith]

Rod, Dave:

Ill send you both a message......

[dave ziegler]

Ethan and Spiderblues are you around on Sunday Mar 18th if the weather is good? If so lets go for it, I will get keys if I know for sure. I was walking around there today with Mike and then later with my old school friend Don. The weeds have not started yet and I was even able to walk inside the Old Kinsey silo today. I felt a million memories there and sadness at how bad everything is there now. I found an Old glass sight gauge with a glass ellbo today in the ruins of the old Kinsey Bottle House out front. I brought it home and will post a picture soon.

Mr Neuman would turn over in his grave if he saw what has happen to his beautiful distillery on the river in Linfield.

It is hard for me to believe what has happen to Her, she was a shinning star back in the day.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

Saturday or Sunday works, but it would work better for me on Saturday as I could be down a lot earlier and stay later.

[dave ziegler]

Today I want to do a little here on the good days of Kinsey and time lines of the Plant. Jacob G Kinsey opened the plant in 1893 and ran it up till Ptohibition. When prohibition was gong on Mr Kinsey went to Germany to learn the brewing of Beer. When Prohibition ended in 1933 Mr Kinsey reopened the Kinsey Distillery at age 75 when most people would want to retire.

Sadly in fall of 1939 he went bankrupt and the plant was sold to Continental Distilling at silent Auction in spring of 1940.

Mr Neuman started the building of the 14 explosion Proof warehouses in 1946 and they were finished in fall 1947 around Sept the month I was born in 1947. My Father Clarence Ziegler after WWII worked there in the early 1950's for around 2 or 3 years in the warehouses.

The 2 foot ball field long 3/4 football field wide Multi use explosion proof warehouse U was built in 1951 and was used for its long docks for storage and shipping till around 1963 when the process of making it into the Worlds Largest Bottling house started and through 1964,and 1965 when the Inver House Plant was being opened after its building. In Sept of 1966 the worlds Largest most modern State of the art Continental Distilling Bottling House opened its doors to 500 plus people for jobs. It had 11 lines its own lab,warehousing of Product a dock big enough for three rail cars and 10 trucks to be served and Line A-1-F could do 40,000 bottles a day it was run by a early Computer.

The total people working at Kinsey peaked to 600 in the late 1960's. The Old Kinsey Bottling house known as Happy House and built in early 1933 was used continuosly till 1979 for bottling all of our large Line of Liquors. When Publicker Quit the warehousing and making and bottling of spirits.

The Company Distilled Whiskey and sold it till around 1982. Kinsey and the Bottling house were used for the bottling of Home Chemicals and AntiFreeze till sept 1986. The Plant closed one night and never reopened.

The Terrible man who owns the Plant and abandoned it bought it in 1982 and leased the bottling house some tanks and a couple of Warehouses to Publicker but he kept finding ways to up the lease and Publicker having old equipment in phila and bad managmeent after Mr Neuman's death in 1976 stopped operating in 1986. Ten years after Mr Neumans death Kinsey died it operated for 94 yrs,Mr Kinsey Lived to be 94 and Continetal Distilling died after 94 yrs.

Talking to someone who worked there at the end I found out they came to work their next work day to Find the guards telling them the place was sealed. Lunchs sat in refridges anything left was left to rot there. Fork lifts, and the man who owned the place destroyed it by turning all the power off abandoning it with no one watch it and protect the wiring. The type of Explosion proof switches used in the buildings would have been fine to this day if someone had watched the place and kept it open so the Power plant would not be out of the Grandfather clause. Once he shut it down Kinsey was doomed to the way it is Now. One person above anyone else caused this the man who took advantage of them in bad times buying it for 3 Million dollars and then walking away like a slum landlord in 1986.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[Jono]

Dave, did your father feel the same way about working there as you do?

What made him leave employment there, if you don't mind me asking?

[ethangsmith]

It was another great day with perfect weather for the Continental outing. I'm sure there will be pictures from Dave to follow. We found quite a few new interesting items and had some time to really cover a good amount of the property. New vandalism was pretty prevalent, but there was still much that was untouched and really fun to go through!

[spiderblues]

Great seeing you guys again & Dave too! Saw a lot & I'm excited to try to start my lamp project. I disassembled & cleaned everything up. It came out nice. I am going to use the complete, new unit with the porcelain shade. I can rig it to work. The shade is in great shape & looks vibrant all cleaned up. The 1930's switch is nice but the switch itself was blown. Good thing Dave told me to take another as a spare. Didn't know I'd need it right away!

Hope to do it again soon!

Rod

It was another great day with perfect weather for the Continental outing. I'm sure there will be pictures from Dave to follow. We found quite a few new interesting items and had some time to really cover a good amount of the property. New vandalism was pretty prevalent, but there was still much that was untouched and really fun to go through!

[dave ziegler]

Well now hee are some more shots including a shot of Me ad Ethan rolling Barrels to the elevator in one of the warehouses.

1. Well here is Ethan and I working the Barrel lift in one of the old Explosion proof warhouses.

2. Me Ethan and Rd with Ethans new toy a Bourbon Barrel head dated 1962. For a 72 gal whiskey Barrel even then we had some big Barrels!

3. Barrel on the lift

4.Lookng over the high bank to the river at the old Kinsey water intake plant I finally was able to work around warehouse D&E to get this shot

5. A zoom shot over the bank of the water plant. It was there the guys got the fish they put in he old fermentes.

6.Writting on Old Kinsey B Warehouse, B and A were the very first warehouses at insey built in around the mid to late 1890's.

7. Looking in what is left of Old warehouse B.

8.This is where Dickie Pfiefer worked keeping all the Old Kinsey trucks and cars running. Stone and dirt floor just a home made bay with a radiator hanging from the home made ceiling for heat.

9.Looking at where the still and tunnel were at the door way that used to bring you down to the tunnel.

10.A shot from Sunday a week From the fire tower looking at the fire escape for warehouse S.

11. Writing on beam in warehouse D

Well I have a couple more for some time Later so enjoy and please look at the pictures on to other two threads also.

Dave Z

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[spiderblues]

Great stuff Dave. Had a great time. Hope to do it again soon!

Well now hee are some more shots including a shot of Me ad Ethan rolling Barrels to the elevator in one of the warehouses.

1. Well here is Ethan and I working the Barrel lift in one of the old Explosion proof warhouses.

2. Me Ethan and Rd with Ethans new toy a Bourbon Barrel head dated 1962. For a 72 gal whiskey Barrel even then we had some big Barrels!

3. Barrel on the lift

4.Lookng over the high bank to the river at the old Kinsey water intake plant I finally was able to work around warehouse D&E to get this shot

5. A zoom shot over the bank of the water plant. It was there the guys got the fish they put in he old fermentes.

6.Writting on Old Kinsey B Warehouse, B and A were the very first warehouses at insey built in around the mid to late 1890's.

7. Looking in what is left of Old warehouse B.

8.This is where Dickie Pfiefer worked keeping all the Old Kinsey trucks and cars running. Stone and dirt floor just a home made bay with a radiator hanging from the home made ceiling for heat.

9.Looking at where the still and tunnel were at the door way that used to bring you down to the tunnel.

10.A shot from Sunday a week From the fire tower looking at the fire escape for warehouse S.

11. Writing on beam in warehouse D

Well I have a couple more for some time Later so enjoy and please look at the pictures on to other two threads also.

Dave Z

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

I need to shave. I just realized this looking at the photo. Maybe I should consider being less lazy on the weekends. Maybe.

It was a great time and I plan on getting some sort of hanging equipment on the back of that barrel head soon. It'll look great next to my Pennco and Michter's heads!

[dave ziegler]

Here are a few more pictures from Satudays trip.

1.,2.,3. Barrels that were in the racks in Old Kinsey warehouse G once full they sat there and went dry falling apart in the racks. It may have been to dangerous to get them out in the end days of operation.

4. Ladder I used to climb in Warehouse D out front to roll barrels to the end of the racks.

5. George Kuterbach written on beam in warehouse G.

When we were there we climbed down in the sub floor of G and walked around a little to take these pictures it was hard getting down there and harder getting out!

Lots of Memories of these old Brick and wooden warehouses built by Jacob G Kinsey. Some of the finest whiskeys lived in these old warehouses.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[mike22487]

looks like you guys had some fun going through there. Hopefully Ill be back up there in the fall time as the leaves start changing colors (if its a good year), I want to go through that farmhouse and barn and get some more pictures of them before they totally collapse. I'm starting to find time to go through the pictures I have taken in Kinseys and I hope to start posting them soon. Dave Thanks again for taking me back there and I hope to do it again soon, and find some more odd lost stuff.

[dave ziegler]

Hey Mike we will go there again in the fall. Here are 4 Pictures of My Office Desk with Kinsey explosion proof Lights and switches of varied types some being weather proof ones also. I now have a large Blue / green explosion proof lamp I am building for my office side table of Lights.

When It is done I will have 32 lighted sets in my office. Rod and I also have started projects of restoring one green over head explosion proof ceiling light with Green enamel shades from warehouse's L and K to make a floor lamp each

The last picture is taken at a distance so you can see the old Publicker Art pictures on the wall from the Publicker World wide Headquarters on 1429 Walnut Street in Phila back in the day.

I will be posting pictures of the ceiling unit unassembled and assembled waiting to be built. Rod has someone to create our lamps sometime in the future.

I have mine completely apart except I have to get someone to drill out the hard red wax the wires run through to the lamp top. I think I May be borrowing a drill tomorow.

I am glad Rod gave me the idea of making a lamp and he has his completely apart now a day ahead of me!

Here are the 4 Pictures of my History desk It is very hard seeing Kinsey the way it is, the end is very near but I will continue to post about the days there and keep saving History from there. Working there at 19 yrs old was a thrill for me and it was a wonderful place to work!

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The Best Old Fashions Are You'll Find

The Mellow,Made With Kinsey Kind!

Dave Z

[dave ziegler]

Here is another Good Picture from My office I forgot to post on page 816 the page before this one. This shows a closeup of Explosion Proof switches and 4 Weather proof switchs from the Old Buildings in the plant, on my desk. Please check out the Pictures on the page 816 before this one that I posted a hour ago.

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Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey for

Unhurried Moments

dave Z

[ethangsmith]

Dave,

I noticed on your office walls there are a few photos of the interior of some of the concrete warehouses full of barrels. Is there any way you can post close-up photos of those on here? I've seen them empty and it really has me curious as to what they looked like with racks and barrels in them!

[dave ziegler]

Ethan here is the Picture you saw on my wall Plus another one with barrels waiting to be rolled.

Both Pictures 1.& 2. are from the Snyder Ave Barrel House in the Snyder Ave Publicker plant Phila in the year 1947 the same year I was born. That warehouse's setup is exactly the way the 14 Explosion proof Warehouses looked with barrels in the racks and the exact same type of rack built by the same company that built them at Kinsey. Also the warehouse was built by the same builder and brick by Kelly for Brick.

The Snyder Ave Barrel House was a very big one built with the same type of stairwells and a fire escape stairwell.

Just got home and adding 3 pictures of my completely unasembled Overhead Explosion proof ceiling light from Warehouse K at Kinsey I finally got the plug drilled out of the ficture part where the wires went Picture 5 second part to the left of the green shade. The wires were showing metal and when it is turned into a lamp it no longer needs to have the plug top keep vapors out. My Next step will be working with Rod to create a standing explosion proof lamp which will be able to go to a Museum when I am gone.

I will post a picture of it reasembled later while I wait to get someone to help with the building of a lamp stand and heavy base.

Thought everyone would enjoy seeing this work of Love for the place resteration!

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

Thanks Dave! Awesome pictures. Is that a puddle of whiskey on the floor in the first photo? Or did the roofs tend to leak even back then? It also surprises me how well lit the interiors were. I can only imagine the smell of all that aging whiskey.....

[dave ziegler]

Yes Ethan that is a typical whiskey Puddle back in the day. On colder or very hot days sometimes when you go in the warehouses you will see some whiskey seeping up out of the cement and still smell it.

Here are 2 pictures one at the Publicker plant in the year 1941 and Harry Publickers Home

1.Bigler street Plant Looking east.

2.Harry Publickers Home

I got these from my friend Butch who worked at the Publicker Plant for ten years back in the day!

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

Dave Z

[spiderblues]

The lamp looks great Dave. Good work cleaning it! Still trying to figure out the base.

Ethan here is the Picture you saw on my wall Plus another one with barrels waiting to be rolled.

Both Pictures 1.& 2. are from the Snyder Ave Barrel House in the Snyder Ave Publicker plant Phila in the year 1947 the same year I was born. That warehouse's setup is exactly the way the 14 Explosion proof Warehouses looked with barrels in the racks and the exact same type of rack built by the same company that built them at Kinsey. Also the warehouse was built by the same builder and brick by Kelly for Brick.

The Snyder Ave Barrel House was a very big one built with the same type of stairwells and a fire escape stairwell.

Just got home and adding 3 pictures of my completely unasembled Overhead Explosion proof ceiling light from Warehouse K at Kinsey I finally got the plug drilled out of the ficture part where the wires went Picture 5 second part to the left of the green shade. The wires were showing metal and when it is turned into a lamp it no longer needs to have the plug top keep vapors out. My Next step will be working with Rod to create a standing explosion proof lamp which will be able to go to a Museum when I am gone.

I will post a picture of it reasembled later while I wait to get someone to help with the building of a lamp stand and heavy base.

Thought everyone would enjoy seeing this work of Love for the place resteration!

=======================================================

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

When Rod and I were at Kinsey I saved an old sign from inside warehouse L. I had a steel hanging cable put on it and they cleaned it for me. Here is A Picture of it Friday night when I brought it home and a shot of my new Kinsey displace on my Bathroom wall.

1. Woooden sign restored from warehouse L

2. On wall above an old fiberboard sign from J warehouse and a picture of Old Dsp-pa-12 and a shot of the Grain drying building with all its metal works coming from the old large Kinsey grain silo,and last picture is an old Kinsey Whiskey ad for the month of Sept for what you should drink each day. Sept is the Month I was born!

Just a note I forgot it was my Old Friend Charlie Seipler who made repaired painted and replaced these signs. Charlie drove around the plant in his old Model A ford frame buggy with a 100 hp ford flathead to power it as I have written. I had to come back and ad this edit in Charlies Memory!

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Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

For Unhurried Moments

Dave Z

[tmckenzie]

I would have a fit to see a puddle that big in our warehouse. Dave, looks like they used a lot of used barrels. Did they?