The Kinsey Fire Observation Room

[dave ziegler]

How can the tires on that pink truck still be inflated!?

One other thing I wonder is that some apparently valuable pieces of equipment (those holding tanks for example, the trucks 20 years ago) must have had some value.

When a business is liquidated, normally the equipment is sold, even for salvage it would have had value.

Why I wonder would so much of it have remained in place?

Also, who owns the site now, is it known?

Gary

Gary it is a long story but here is what Happened Publicker stopped Distilling Drinking Alcohol in 1979 they shut down Kinsey for a bit then reopened bottling Antifreeze and Industrial chemicals. then in 1982 to get some money to keep them going they sold the place to a Man named Eugene Ostreicher from New York with the agreement that they would lease the Bottling house, the tanks and a couple of the warehouses to store stuff they had not gotten rid of. Well they went for 4 more years and even were trying to become like P&G buying companys that made home cleaning products. For a bit it looked like they would make it then in 1986 people went home one Friday night came back Monday to find they were out of Bussiness. The very next day they called all the people and gave them severance pay ASAP. Then they sold their distillerys in Phila to Overland Wrecking for 3 Million dollars ground that was worth 30 Million cleaned up! They had them sign a agreement that they would by buying it at such a low price clean the place up so that Publicker could take what cash they had left and buy Brightstar Flashlight company! Overland caught the place on fire hurrying in the cleanup went into Bankrupsey and The Epa made Publicker pay for the cleanup even though they had done the right thing. Meanwhile Ostreicher just suddenly closed the place shut down the Boilers and just left it rot for all these years. If you type his name in you will find that he built a building in NY that fell down and killed someone due to shoddy work. He was charging them way more then he had promised and they just plain walked away and all these years he has left this wonderful and historic place go to Hell. Just lately the DEP had sued him for around $400,000 dollars for not taking ground samples and for letting the place go to Hell. After it was to late Publicker had wished they had not let him talk them into buying it but there was a hostil try to take over the company by some Lawyers who bought so much common stock that they finally got on the board and were the ones with the bright idea to sell Kinsey and then to quit the industry, and to sell Kinsey in that deal as he was a friend of the Lawyers one being the Late David Cohn from Phila

This is about the best I can do to explain it a very sad story Kinsey when I worked they had 600 people working there.

Dave Z

[Gillman]

This sounds like a complicated story and I am sure everyone involved has their view on what happened and why, anyway I was just wondering in general about it.

I enjoy your reminiscences of the days you worked there and the pictures, thanks again for those.

Gary

[dave ziegler]

This sounds like a complicated story and I am sure everyone involved has their view on what happened and why, anyway I was just wondering in general about it.

I enjoy your reminiscences of the days you worked there and the pictures, thanks again for those.

Gary

Gary one more thing and you right the whole thing is and was very complicated. The picture of the truck was in 2002 it is long gone now. Also Publicker sold all their trucks including the old Mack Fire truck to the junk yard in 1986 except for a couple including the old Mack B-61. The outfit that said it was going to turn the place into a Propane power Plant in 2002 never ended up buying it and just mostly took stuff for cash leaving everything in more ruin after they told people they were fixing all the buildings up. They tore the old still down just to cash in the metal around 2003 the people told the township they did not want anymore Power plants in Limerick as the Nuclear one is enough. So they took all they could and walked out.

Still it Kills me seeing the old girl in such shape and Mr Neuman would turn over in his grave if he saw it now!

BE WELL Gary

Dave Z

[mozilla]

These are the last of the pictures I have received from Dave. I hope non are duplicates....

[dave ziegler]

These are the last of the pictures I have received from Dave. I hope non are duplicates....

The pictures are as follows #1. The tree that I mulched when I was a Kid working the yard gang

#2. Warehouses they have now cut the weeds

#3. Building J Ice on it #4. 120 gal Barrel building L

#5.Dump trough that still has screens in it Building L

#6Terometer on wall of Elevator in Building L you could turn up the heat in all the buildings when you were in there.

#7. Stalagmits on the floor of Building L

#8Stalagtites on roof in building L

#9Building #38 two tanks for blending all the way at the end of the plant. Note windows on each end to bring in light at dawn and dusk!

These pictures were taken on Sat Feb 16, 2008

[mozilla]

These pics were taken this last weekend by Dave. These are of the upper rooms of the fire observation room.

[dave ziegler]

These pics were taken this last weekend by Dave. These are of the upper rooms of the fire observation room.

If you look closely there is a metal Ladder on the side of the Fire Observation room to climb up to the roof and a set of stairs that takes you into this very strange sort of Extra fire watch room, by looking at it you can see the reason for it is to have a look to the East of the plant without the roof being in your view. There is a heating Pipe like the big room and a explosion proof Light, but there is also a very large open square section where there is no floor and there must have been some kind of grating that fell apart after the heat from the fire there had been on the third flood when someone set off some barrels that still had whiskey in them. But what is really odd is besides the openable Window there is one just below it with no access and if you look over the edge you find that once the grating was gone it is a shaft straight down into a sealed Brick wall section all the way to the bottom with no access below went down and looked no windows below other then the one in the room and the one you can see looking at the big picture of the whole room setup. I was not about to get to close to that edge if you fell in there the only way out would be to knock a hole in the wall down below and the fall would kill you. Wish I knew what the rods held there must have been something strong as you stand on it to open the window and to change to light buld also. It is the Highest spot in the Plant and looking from that direction you can really see to the East where there are and were Farm fields. Maybe it was just put on to make it stonger besides giving a window to look to the East? But why a Grate with no way to replace it and no way to get into this sealed hollow shaft.

Dave Z

[dave ziegler]

Dave has been kind enough to share some photos from the Kinsey Plant in Limerick Pa. This first group is of the Fire Watch Tower on Building Q. It overlooked the massive complex, somewhere around 300-400 acers.

Just a quick note to Add if my old School friend since 10 years old Don did not go with me on these trips I could not get these pictures of the fire tower and others as having been so sick last year I can't go places where there would be no one to help me and he also climbed the ladder to take the pictures of the little top room on the tower this past sat the last set on this thread of it I did the rest but a ladder on the side of a roof I could not do. Dave z

[mozilla]

Very recent photos of the fire room and surrounding area:

[mozilla]

recent pic's of the Weigh and Blend Building #38:

[dave ziegler]

Dave has been kind enough to share some photos from the Kinsey Plant in Limerick Pa. This first group is of the Fire Watch Tower on Building Q. It overlooked the massive complex, somewhere around 300-400 acers.

Wednesday when I talked to Ludy who worked there 43 years he told me something very interesting about the Fire tower It seems they would set Labeled Bottles up there to test the labels Fading and holding up. This solved a mistery for me as when I went in it I went all the way down to the botom and saw many broken bottles there and I wondered then how they got there and why! I guess when it was abandon they sat there and Kids that got in and ruined things throw them down the steps so that is now solved!

Dave

[dave ziegler]

There are two DSP #'s for the Kinsey operation. These pic's are of DSP#10. It was used for their rye distilling, IIRC. Dave will be able to fill in the blanks.

Last night when I gave a talk about the Kinsey Distillery to the Limerick Historic Society a Man to whom Jacob Kinsey was his great Uncle told me about DSP# 10 the Kinsey Rye Still. He worked there and he said #10 was a Column or Contiuous still or also called a Patent Still. They also had the very First Bottling Line in the Old Kinsey #10 Barn of which the Pictures in this thread are of. If you look on the Old ladder you can see Kinsey #10 stenciled on it. This was where after Publicker Bought Kinsey that they made the First Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey and some of the Bourbons. Continental had two DSP's there #10 and the Old Number #12 I have talked about so much. It is amazing when you look at the building that DSP # 10 is in, it is basicly an old Stone Barn that Jacob Kinsey had built! He also told me that during Prohibtion Mr Kinsey Went to Germany to study Brewing as He was also interested in it. Once Prohibition ended Fall 1933 He reopened the Distillery and started making Whiskeys but the Money he lost in the time before reopening and his age late 75 going till 1939 / 1940, 82 years old forced him to have it go up for auction.

This is the story of Jacob G Kinsey Master Distiller! Also His Great nephew told me that Mr Kinsey lived to be 94 years old. So from a school teacher to a owner of a Creamery to a Master Distiller is the story of Jacob G Kinsey A Giant in the early days of Whiskey Distilling in the USA!

Dave Z

[dave ziegler]

Speaking of the Explosion proof warehouses each building when I started there had 999,000 barrels of aging whiskey in them 333,000 per floor and 14 million in the whole plant at that time! even the old brick and wood rack buildings were full saw stuff dated 1950, 1955 ect and such that may have been some of the stock they used later when they brought out their 20 anniversary Old Hickory Bourbon I don't know but old stuff was there! If you had ever been in the plant you would be amazed at the build of the 1944 Explosion Proof Warehouses over a foot thick walls, floors and ceilings. Special vent fans light heating to keep it just the right coolness and as I have said everything sealed lights switches Phones in certain places heavy steel roll doors. I wish someone would use them for Condos and not tear them down they were so strong they were a civil defense site in case of Atomic attack in the late 1940's 1950's. When you go in certain ones you can still smell whiskey coming out of the heavy Cement Floors. They were built of explosion proof Brick & Teracotta Cement with one inch thick heavy Rods. The one the People set fire in years and years ago was not even harmed by the fire of the old whiskey that was there, a little chipping of a few bricks that is all it would be a crime to tear them down. You could call them the Condo's at Kinsey Distillery and give each one a Whiskey name Like Old Hickory Building, Kinsey Silver warehouse Condo ect! If they would have been people of Vision those days the Township should be bought and preserved the Still buildings out front as a living history Museum and the Then the buildings could have been made into beautiful places to live in a living history setting but people do not have vision or forthought today. It is a, I want my Cash right now world! You could have kept up the Flowers and lawns and the trees and the Old Kinsey house could have been made into a Fine Resturant and served Beer and Whiskey lots of room 200 acre's I wish I would have had lots of Money I would have done as Si Neuman did go for it and worry later!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

I have been thinking about some of the People that worked for Kinsey and one of them Was Charlie Sipler. Charlie hung out in the old Grain building next to the old Kinsey grain Silo. In the Early Am when I came in about 7:00-AM you would hear a roar coming out of the garage door on the bottow floor. A minute or two later Charlie would roar out in his home made Buggy. It was a Ford Frame think Model T with a chair bolted on the frame open engine compartment, no fenders, stick shift and a flat bed. Charlie was our maintaince Carpenter and a very good one. I can still see him roaring out he would fly in the thing with his pipe in his mouth off he would go to wherever he was needed. He was a good old guy and I always enjoyed talking to him about the old Days at Kinsey. End of the day Charlie would head back to the old Building he was the only one to use it and go up to his shower He had set up there get cleaned up and day was over.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

I often think back about things at Kinsey and I am remembering break times there, things were simple back then, we had an old time Soda machine they cost about a dime and were in glass bottles. We had A treat Soda's from Allentown and they were dam good and cold! Also Cig's were about .35 a pack and we had a machine in there and also a candy and cracker machine, an old time hand wash Sink we called it a "Bird" "Bath" and some times guys would get pushed in and get wet! Alot of times we would not want in the Summer to leave the Warehouse as so cool there to ride in the heat on the back of the truck to take us there! We would either play cards or Dice then. In my mind we were better off then People today where there are lots of choices and people waste so much money on junk food and stuff they can do with out. Give me a .10 sonda 05. pack of Crackes and just relaxing. We did are jobs in a calm way then and the goal was to do the job right and not get hurt not like the presure people have today or the way people have gotten lazy not wanting to do anything. Those days you had personal responiblity. We got paid good had good insurance and liked our jobs Life was so simple! And We had Fun working!! There is something to be proud about having worked there and for the most part everyone enjoyed their jobs. And if we were poor we sure did not know it!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

One of my Favorite Memories was the Smell when you walked into the Warehouse after they had been shut for a month or so the air was blue with vapors and the smell of aging whiskey intense! If you had a cold or sinus it helped opened you right up and your first time in it almost got you feeling loaded! The Vapors near the sealing were dark blue and thick, and I really liked the smell working in them. It was very cool even in the summer when it was in the 90's outside it was nice in there. They always made sure we had Thermel jackets in winter and good work boots and gloves. They if they had to would give us a paper to get shoes. They really took good care of us and if breathing the fumes was not good for us we did not know it! There was never a dull moment working in the warehouses and days went by fast and Happy. Some days we would go to two or three warehouses in a day because it would be a dump day and we would have to dump the right barrels for that days Bottling and often they were in different buildings. Those days the old 1941 Fords would be roaring back and forth taking barrels to warehouses where there were dump trouths. I in my Mind can still hear the old Ford Flat Head V8's Roaring back and forth, being double clutched and going way to fast!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

Another great thing working at Kinsey was the old Linfield Firehouse which offten had good food to buy for lunch things like Pierogies made by the people that went to the Catholic Church in Linfield, also Stuffed Cabbag all kinds of things Zeps also and always tickets for raffels. Right down the road on the big road was a small market and sandwich place that also took Horse Bets under the table then and we had a guy nickmaned Bookie who would go place your bets at lunch time. There were so many things going on there and it was always so quite there you could hear the many Birds singing and the breezes coming up from the river were always very nice. Such good days they were and I think fondly of them!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

Sometimes on a Friday we would Place Bets with Bookie and also send someone with to the Lunch place to get us Burgers, they had real good Burgers and home made. We all Played the Horses then and Mr Harring ( Bookie ) was always taking Book from Us. Some Guys Played cards at Lunch but I did not as the ones that did argued to Much about stuff. If We Worked Hard we did not mind it, we just beleived in the work Ethic and it did not bother us. It was if anything something to be proud of Working earning your Keep and working a Job you really liked. That Combo can not be beat! And they left Us alone and we worked with out having to be watched all the time which today happens all to offten. There were People from the Coal country Of pa who moved down and Irish People and we All got along and worked Hard together. I can not remember much but good days there!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

When I last talked to Ludy who worked at Kinsey from 1936 till 1982 He told me that each of the 3 floors of the Explosion Proof Warehouses had 333,000 barrels of aging whiskey, or 999,000 Per Warehouse with the rest being in the old Wood Brick warehouses. It would be an amazing smell when you went into one of them after it had not been open for a month or so, sometimes almost overpowering was the smell of Whiskey. My Sinus loved it would open my nose right up. The blue vapors were all up at the sealing and you could see them dancing in the light of the sealed explosion proof Lights. After you did it a while it was a very nice smell to you and not overpowering as much as pleasant to me. When I last took a walk in there in one of the buildings that had been open I was greeted by the smell of Whiskey coming out of the cement Floors after all these 37 years and It brought back memories and It was pleasant for the couple of Minutes I was in there. I never thought for a minute back then of Kinsey being out of Bussiness. Yet this is the way things go and it is sad and typical of the times we now live in longevetty is not the thing anymore!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

These are the last of the pictures I have received from Dave. I hope non are duplicates....

If you look at #29 second picture Page 3 the white looking lines running through the walls of the buildings are the thickness of the roof and floors we looked hard at them the other day and they are about at least 24 inches thick or better then 2 foot that is strong!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

I am revisiting this thread to talk a bit about the Fire Observation room and How very well made these Explosion proof Warehouses were made in the 1940's. When I climbed up the front stairs last Fall to go across the roof to the Room to check it out I first went on all 3 floors and in going up to the third Floor I found out what had caused the fire that burned there. There were remains of many 120 Gallon Whiskey Barrels and looking you could see that the couple of years before when the fire started that Kids must have been up there and the barrles had some old Corn Whiskey in them and somehow they caught it on fire.

The fire Company in order to get to the fire knocked the hole in the wall which I showed in pictures on this thread. The walls of the Building on that floor other then where they put the hole are as strong as ever. When I continued to climb up on the roof and walk to the Fire Observation Room I found that the heat rising from the fire on the floor below was so great back then that the Glass windows had exploded out in the Observation Room and turned to Liquid and melted on the window stils. The frame work buckled.

Yet the Floor in the room held and was fine when I walked there and the roof just above the fire on the building was as strong as ever not even hurt.

These have to be some of the very best built ever Whiskey Warehouses and as I have always said our Products were always very good. Each building had vents and fans and a little heat as I have said. I would love to have seen them building these warehouses. Every floor is filled with heavy steel Rods also the walls and the many Strong Pillers.

I am going to try and research who the company was that built these amazing buildings.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

Here are a couple of Pictures I took on Sunday of the Fire tower, I will be posting some new Pictures from Sunday all over the Plant including the Fire house which I discovered is still there it was just so covered with growth could not see it. I also discovered that the roof of the Old Kinsey Bottling house fell down a result of the fire in it years ago so I took some pictures of it and went in the bottom floor to get some last shots while its standing I will put them all on the Memories Thread. Picture 5 is looking at the back Tank from Building Q The Fire Tower Warehouse, and 6 is looking down at the back of Building L. Also if you have not seen them I posted two Pictures of Ludy on the Memories thread on Sat holding his Stave I gave him to show his years of Service Fricky Did it up for me and I gave it to him about a week ago and his daughter took pictures of him holding it and An Areial Shot of the plant I gave him.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's most magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

Here are two Pictures of the side of Building Q Fire tower building where the Fire company knocked the wall in to put a fire out yeear ago that kids started in Corn Whiskey Barrels. I forgot these this morning!

Dave Z

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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[dave ziegler]

Below are two more pictures of the fire system at Kinesy.

Pic 1. The Pyrotronic's comand box in the fire house I was finally able to get into through all the growth

Pic 2. Once again look at the size of the main pipes going into the oldest Warehouse in the Plant, Numbers E and this shot on the back half Warehouse D. Built in the early late 1890's / 1900's when Continental Distilling bought the plant in Spring 1941 they not only Sprinkled the New Explosion proof ware houses they also did even this Old Warehouse set. It also had explosion proof Outlets to run the small lift we used in them as no elevator in these. To go up the levels which if you look in the Memories thread you will see a couple of shots looking up from the floor 10 levels up.

You have no choice but to climb up a wood ladder all the way!

Inside the Pyrotronics box in the fire house was a system of monitor lights. I think this had in those days have to be a really Hi End Setup and it shows how Continental always thought ahead. They would once a month stage mock fire fights the local Linfield fire company would come down and they would most times do them around all the Old Buildings allot of times they would do it at Warehouse H and I have some old Fire drill papers from times they did it and once my computer is running I will post them here. If Heaven Hills had done this back in the day their old Distillery would still be there and they would not have lost near as much good Whiskey's. Continental & Mr Neuman always thought these things out and weighed toward what the safest smartest thing was to do and the option for the least loss! As long as they operated we never had any fires and we were able to safely burn out the old metal racks and every single building. No matter how old each building was they had the right extsinguisers in them. If there are any Distillerys today that do not have this protection I think it is a really bad thing. The Fire Chief was Calvin Roberts and his second in command was Stan Stafoniwitz. And their Asistant was Harry Martin. They would run the old Kinsey Mack Fire truck every week,

test all the Fire hydrants every month check all the sprinklers, each Explosion proof warehouse had an out door brick room with vavles that would direct as much water as they could into that building if needed!

And as I have posted way back we even had fire Hydrants in the woods around the Plant! Now working at a very safe plant I really see how ahead they were in their time. And Add to all that the Idea of Building the Fire tower in the fire escape in Building Q at the Highest point in the Plant were you could see everywhere even the fields in the distance, and the extra little room on top of it to give you a better view over the roof side of the building into the woods! By the way the doors to get to the escape were open when ever we went into them we opened the doors for safety and locked them when we closed up to contain a fire if one would start when no one was there! Also even the Elevators had heavy down weighted Fire doors to contain a fire and going out the front first floor two doors one out of the floor and then the door out! Even the roll doors were extra heavy Steel. and when I was in the New Bottling House I happened to see something in one of My pictures that our Safety Expert here where I work Now Randy K showed me when he looked at the pictures printed out, there was a series of emergency low power Battery Lights placed throughout the 1966 bottle house in case of a fire emergency or explosion. He showed me on one of my Pitch black shots a light up on the roof placed to lite an escape. He told me in those days 99% of companys would never have spent for or had that technoligy but Publicker did. Also the work safe signs were unheard of as companies did not want to spend the money. He said to me That must have been a really safe place to work! And when I showed him the Fire proof Phone box in the tank section of the Plant He said they were really with safety there. Safety is his main job here where I work and Fire safety is his biggest thing so for Randy K to be impressed really makes my points!

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

Here is a picture of the large work safe sign in the 1966 Bottling House and a picture of the Emergencey Batt & Low Electric Powered Light if you look at the top right you will see it on the wall set to light the area in case of trouble!

This one was way ahead of its time so tells me our Safety Man Randy K!

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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