Kentucky’s Old Taylor Bought By Peristyle

By Richard Thomas

Old Taylor in its heyday
(Credit: University of Kentucky)

Old Taylor, the crenulated pile that has long been the crown jewel of Kentucky’s abandoned whiskey distilleries, has been purchased by Peristyle, LLC for $950,000 according to The Lexington Herald Leader.

Located only 2.5 miles from the Woodford Reserve distillery, Old Taylor was built in the 1880s, with the main building using hand-cut limestone blocks and designed around a castle theme, complete with turrets and crenulations. Jim Beam was the last company to make bourbon there, closing operations in the early 1970s. The warehouses were still used until the 1990s.

Beam sold the property to an Atlanta investment group, who harvested the out-buildings for their vintage brick, stone, and pine lumber to use in the housing bubble of the 2000s, a venture that reportedly went bust alongside the implosion of that bubble.

Peristyle, LLC was formed in March by William Miles Arvin Jr. of Nicholasville, who owns a 20% stake in the company. They received a quarter-million dollar tax break from the state of Kentucky before going ahead with their Old Taylor project. They intend to invest $6.1 million in the renovation of Old Taylor and create 10 permanent jobs.

The company set an ambitious target of being open for distilling and visitors by the autumn of 2015. Although some in the whiskey blogosphere are already croaking skeptically about the outcome of the Old Taylor project, with $1.2 million in cash and incentives already put in it is clear Peristyle is serious about resurrecting the Old Taylor facility.