On the extreme left are CSX railroad tracks. The Free Warehouse A is the dark structure immediately behind the yellow brick Office Building. Centrally you see the Grain Elevator-Granary Building, the Stack, and the open space where the Engine Room and Boiler House used to be. Still standing are the Distillery Building, Old Fermenting House, New Fermenting House (pale yellow), and a portion of the Drying House and Machine Shop at the far right. Demolition rubble is in the foreground.

~~ Flickr Photographer Visits Broad Ford ~~

This past spring, by way of e-mails from Dan Holland and Jeffrey Antol, I became aware of the work of a young Pennsylvanian who publishes his work on Flickr, the photo sharing web site hosted by Yahoo! Then known as cjb19772009, he had just posted a set of 30 photos showing the effect of demolitions that were ongoing at Broad Ford. Since August 2009, cjb has changed his moniker to Mtnbiker09 (see URL below).

Dismayed at the prospect of losing more of the Overholt buildings, wanting to get more information, I went to cjb19772009's "photostream," where 25 different sets were posted. Along with the brand new Historic A. Overholt Company Distillery, other sets that immediately caught my eye were the following.

Scenes of the Youghiogheny River
Trains, Tracks, Railroad Structures
The Coal and Coke Industry
Autumn and Winter in the Laurel Highlands of PA
Connellsville, Dunbar, and Uniontown Areas
Westmoreland County, PA

Self Portrait at Casparis Lookout Point - Photograph by cjb19772009 © 4-8-08

In the Scenes of the Youghiogheny River set, I found the self-portrait above, taken in April 2008. His comment explained the location as being five miles from his home on the north end of Connellsville. To leave cjb a note, I signed up for a Flickr account, and soon we two were exchanging a lot of e-mail about what was going on and what he had seen at Broad Ford. "It is sad how the place got trashed," he wrote in April 2009, "and anything ornate and valuable has been destroyed. You might want to know that there has been a lot of activity around there lately. The area around it is being logged out and some of the unstable buildings just got torn down. I am not sure how far they are going with the demolition."

Later, he wrote, "I hate to say it, but many people in our area are apathetic to historical things like this. Only people from other places realize the significance. Luckily I live not far from a lot of the places in my Flickr photostream and can quickly get more photos. My set on The Coal and Coke Industry is a constant work in progress. There is a lot I plan on photographing and adding to it this year." About the distillery site, he wrote, "Unfortunately they are logging all the way to the river. It will never look the same there, but on that side of the river, there is a lot of heavy acid mine pollution anyways."

Sensitive to my warnings about the wild area around the site, cjb replied, "About the snakes, they aren't an issue to me. I've grown up around the outdoors, and always see at least several snakes a year. Some poisonous, and some harmless. There is a photo of a copperhead on tracks in my railroad set. This is actually right next to the distillery. But thanks for the warning. I look forward to working on this project more."

On a subsequent visit to Broad Ford, cjb wrote, "I spent a good six hours at the distillery site. I was there much longer than expected, because I ran into a major stroke of luck. No one was doing any logging or demolition work on the property today! The only people around were a group of construction workers putting a new bridge in on the road in front. I had a short talk with them and they spoke all about how it is more history that will be gone forever. Even the construction workers knew about your site, so word really gets around! They told me about what they had seen in the buildings, and said I should go have a look. I said I'd like to, but don't want to get in trouble. They said no one is going to mind and it's all going to be torn down anyway. So I just started taking pictures, at the office building first, and then working my way back. I have well over 200 photos from today!"

Over the next few weeks, and into the summer, cjb continued to add to his Historic A. Overholt Company Distillery set. Soon the number of photos reached 289 -- and still counting, because cjb keeps going back to capture more shots of these amazing buildings that are disappearing right before our eyes. Of course, it is his camera work that is preserving the scene and acting as our own eyes.

Karen's Note: Once you start exploring what is available at Flickr and do a search for "Overholt Distillery," you will find about 36 entries, and thereby uncover a few other photographers who have posted shots taken at Broad Ford, especially Equinox27, who has visited the site several times. Some of them have published pictures of the remnants of the Swinging Bridge. I did a search for "Overholt," too, netted 521 results, started clicking on all the entries, and was surprised to uncover a whole collection of pictures taken at my niece's wedding a couple years ago at North Park. At the time, attending the wedding with my usual one-time-use camera, I came away with only a few good shots. But thanks to Flickr, I now have a whole bunch more!

From the moment I saw cjb's set on Broad Ford, it was my desire to create a web page featuring some of his photos. After securing his permission, it was then very hard limiting myself to only a few, since there were so many great shots to choose from. Well, as cjb continued to add to the set, my "one web page" idea sort of multiplied into several web pages, and then morphed into twelve! Technically, only six of the twelve new pages feature cjb's photography, but I worried about doing justice to the work of this young artist, not wishing to overshadow the collection he has published on Flickr. However, after spending many hours exploring only a portion of what he has published online, this little series on Karen's Branches will only serve to draw attention to the rest he has to offer. And while he is now using the name MtnBiker09, his collection is still reached by the following URL. If it changes, the new URL will be seen here.

cjb19772009/Mtnbiker09's photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjb19772009/sets/

I wrote to cjb recently to say, "I am sure once my visitors connect with your Flickr sets, they will know where to go for the newest additions." So please make time to explore his entire Overholt Distillery collection, as well as the other sets. And be sure to check back from time to time for more, because as he wrote, "I want to keep improving and getting better shots than last time." He explained, "My photography is constantly evolving and many times I look back on photos I took before, and wish I could take them over. I am a perfectionist at times. That is why I keep going back. My later photos are focusing more on the artistic aspects of the distillery, because I have a better camera to work with that allows me to do more things . . . This set is more of a work in progress than I ever could have imagined."

Now we just have to get used to his new Flickr name.

~~ Bonded Warehouse D ~~

Bonded Warehouse D - Photograph by K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 5-17-04

The photograph above shows us what the last-standing bonded warehouse looked like in May 2004, when Susan Karas and I conducted our Broad Ford Safari. Notice how huge the structure was. A thick growth of trees, bushes, vines and weeds kept us from getting any closer to the building from this direction.

My set of blueprints of A. Overholt and Company describes the original "Building D of Internal Revenue Warehouse No. 3" as being 163 feet long by 118 feet - 4 ½ inches wide. It had eight floors with the capacity to hold 33,156 barrels of aging Overholt Whiskey. The structure had a stone and concrete foundation, brick walls, wood floors, and built up composition roof over insulation and wood deck sheeting. The windows of the first two floors were 3'-2" W x 4'-10" H, with bars and steel shutters. There were no windows above the seventh floor. The other floors had windows that were the same dimensions of the first two floors, but had only steel shutters. The exceptions were the windows on the two pent houses that were situated centrally on the roof, which were 3'-0" W x 4'-6" H, with steel shutters and bars.

Apparently, the rooftop structures were considered to be on the ninth floor, and each contained the workings of a 2000 lb. elevator. Inside the structure, parallel to each elevator, there was a steel ladder beginning high up on the second floor and ending at the eighth floor. Stairs are indicated to be on the first floor going up to the second floor. Two doors on the first floor (east elevation) were 6' 0" W x 6' 6" H, with steel outer doors and wood inner doors. Another door on the first floor (west elevation) was 5' 0" W x 5' 10" H, with steel outer doors. All three first-floor doors included a "government lock."

~~ Not A Perfect Rectangle ~~

The blueprints show that the design for the warehouse intended it to be a perfect rectangle, but all our photographs show it ended up to be somewhat different. Doubtless, the added girth came about in order to increase the number of barrels it could hold, but still adhere to fire safety laws. That is my guess, although I wish I could have seen the interior before the demolition, because maybe the mystery could have been solved. However, the bird's eye views of the warehouse reveal a curious pattern as the roof fell in. Perhaps the original dimensions of this building can be seen after all.

Regarding the size of the warehouse, data from the Fayette County Assessment Office web site gives us the lengths of each wall as 175 feet, 143 feet, 146 feet and 144 feet (see graphic), covering an area of 22,809 square feet. This information dates back to when Sullivan D'Amico owned the site.

Given this bit of background information, you are now ready to see the images of what this building looked like as it was being dismantled, and how the demolitions impacted the rest of the site. Remember that anything considered to be of immediate value was long ago stripped from the warehouse interior by previous owners and local vandals. Still, maybe some of the wood, and certainly most of the bricks have value, although, as cjb reported, some of the wood showed signs of damage by fire.

This photo was taken on the northwest corner of the line of connected buildings that now begins with the distillery building -- the topmost portion is seen above the Old Fermenting House. Above that, you can see the top of the tall stack and a portion of the corrugated structure atop the granary. The pale yellow brick Office Building can be seen on the left in the distance. The mounds of bricks come from the dismantled last-standing bonded warehouse -- Bonded Warehouse D.

Upon seeing these photographs, my first thought (following despair) was, "I want those bricks!" To me, they represent several generations of Overholt history, and if they could be saved, they could be used to create something new at Broad Ford, namely my own small batch artisan distillery.

The ruins above appear to be the remains of the Drying House and Machine Shop. At cjb's web site, he identifies them as the After Processing Warehouse, and other names he uses to identify the buildings were taken from various signs discovered on site. It is safe to assume that the buildings were used for many purposes over the years, when the distillery was no longer operating and occupied by other companies.

Notice the wall's brick-within-brick construction, showing how masons reinforced the original structures.

The distillery building connects to the "old" fermenting house via an elevated bridge corridor, connecting the second floors of each building. The "new" fermenting house (aka Fermenting House Annex) is attached and "set back" from the old fermenting house. The 1990 HABS/HAER survey states that the machine shop (with a monitor roof) and drying house are attached to the new fermenting house, but the correct order may be a) the new fermenting house, then b) the drying house, then c) the machine shop on the end, but this is just a guess, because the alternative is that the whole existing structure is the machine shop, and the drying house was located where only ruins remain on the far right. The field is covered with bricks and rubble after the demolitions.

The survey mentions the sign below, which is located on the exterior of the old fermenting house. The letter "L" interests me. Was the Old Fermenting House designated Warehouse L?

Gone now is the steel frame conveyor that connected the granary to the distillery building, spanning the distance over a missing engine room and boiler house. The conveyor moved grain from the granary to the distillery at the third floor level. In 1967, the boiler house was still standing immediately north of the "tall stack," still attached to the distillery. Note the entry to the grain elevator, the small yellow brick outbuilding, and the debris field of red bricks. "Free Warehouse A" is the very old two-story red brick building "with a tin roof and corbelled chimney and brick pilasters and corbelling," with a garage door added to its south side.

~~ Little Information from Shallenberger Construction ~~

When I learned about the demolition activitiy at Broad Ford, I made several attempts to get information from the current owner, Terry Shallenberger of Shallenberger Construction, Connellsville, PA. I made phone calls, left messages on answering machines, and sent e-mails, but at the time, the company was in the process of moving to a new location, so I made no progress. Then one afternoon late in April, I heard from the company representative who had spoken with me in the past. He phoned and said the walls of the old warehouse had fallen in and represented a danger to people, and so it had been removed. He said the owner had no other plans for removing any other buildings. He did say that the land had been bought primarily because it was riverfront property.

Towards the end of July, cjb wrote, "By the way, the demolitions at the site have stopped. It looks like they just wanted to get the most unstable buildings down that caught on fire, and get the trees for logging."

These are some examples of the bricks cjb found at Broad Ford, along with the old red brick ones that were part of Bonded Warehouse D. You will see they are handsome bricks, and in my opinion, they should be rescued and used to establish a new Overholt presence at Broad Ford. A couple times last spring, I asked for information about these bricks, but no one from Shallenberger Construction has answered my queries on the subject. I still want information, and still want to rescue these bricks! A few Internet friends like the idea of using some of the bricks to build a marker to commemorate the site's history. For me, a yellow-brick road would be nice, too!

The Year was 1856

Jacob Stauffer Overholt (1814-1859), son of West Overton distiller Abraham Overholt, and his cousin Henry O. Overholt (1813-1880), son of Abraham's older brother Martin, build a distillery at Broad Ford, Pennsylvania, where they produce Monongahela Whiskey.

1859

Jacob Stauffer Overholt dies; Abraham Overholt buys his son's 2/3 interest in the Broad Ford distillery, and with his nephew, Henry O. Overholt, he replaces his existing distillery at West Overton with a new six-story brick mill/distillery building; they are operating as A. Overholt and Company, with a daily capacity increases to 200 bushels of grain and 860 gallons of whiskey.

1864

Abraham Overholt makes his grandson, Abraham Overholt Tinstman (1834-1915) a partner in his firm A. Overholt and Company.

1866-67

Jacob Stauffer Overholt's distillery at Broad Ford is torn down and replaced with a new facility owned by Abraham Overholt and his nephew, Henry O. Overholt.

1868

Henry O. Overholt leaves A. Overholt and Company, and A. O. Tinstman buys his interest in the firm. Tinstman gives his young cousin, "Clay" Frick, a job as an office boy at the Broad Ford distillery, paying him $25 per month. Later, Tinstman pays Frick roughly $83 per month "to take care of the office."

1870

Abraham Overholt (1784-1870) dies the morning of January 15, on his West Overton farm.

Henry Stauffer Overholt (1810-1870), the oldest of Abraham's children -- joint owner of the West Overton distillery, mill and farm -- retires and dissolves the brief partnership between himself and his father's three executors (his brothers Christian and Martin, and cousin Jacob Overholt Tinstman. Henry dies on June 18.

A. O. Tinstman organizes and builds the Mt. Pleasant & Broad Ford Railroad connecting with the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad at Broad Ford.

1874

Acting alone and on his own initiative, Henry Clay Frick tracks down the stockholders of his cousin A. O. Tinstman's Broad Ford Railroad, obtains their signatures on options, then offers the B & O Railroad a deal they cannot refuse -- the Broad Ford Railroad at Cost ($200,000), earning for himself a $50,000 commission in the bargain.

1875

Abraham Overholt Tinstman purchases his deceased grandfather's 2/3 interest in the firm A. Overholt and Company, including the right to use the name as a brand and trade mark.

1876

Abraham Overholt Tinstman sells his interest in A. Overholt & Co. to brother Christian Stauffer Overholt Tinstman (C.S.O.Tinstman, another son of Abraham Overholt’s daughter Anna), together with the right to use the firm name as a brand & trade mark.

c.1876

Christian Stauffer Overholt Tinstman & Christopher Fritchman become partners in the firm A. Overholt & Co.

1878

Christian Stauffer Overholt Tinstman & partner Christopher Fritchman (owners of an undivided 2/3 interest in the firm A. Overholt & Co. and lessees of the other 1/3 interest from the First National Bank of Uniontown) take into co-partnership with them James G. Pontefract for the term of one year (from August 1, 1878 to August 1, 1879) & by renewal to April 1, 1881.

1880

Building project #3 commences at Broad Ford distillery; by utilizing coal for steam power, the daily capacity increases to 800 bushels of grain and 3,450 gallons of whiskey.

1881

First federal trademark law, which enables producers to register & protect brand names.

With a document dated March 1, Henry Clay Frick obtains from the executors of Abraham Overholt (i.e., Martin Stauffer Overholt & Christian Stauffer Overholt) the right to use the A. Overholt & Co. name “at the distillery property in Connellsville township, Fayette County, PA,” for the consideration of one dollar “and other good and valuable considerations.”

On March 12, partners C. S. O. Tinstman & Christopher Fritchman enter into another agreement with James G. Pontefract, granting him (for 2 years, until April 1, 1883) the right to use the name of the firm A. Overholt & Co. and the various brands at the distillery.

According to Henry Clay Frick, before the lease expires on April 1, he has purchased the undivided 1/3 interest in the firm A. Overholt & Co. from the First National Bank of Uniontown “and others.”

By March 23, Henry Clay Frick owns the undivided 2/3 of “a certain tract of land in Connellsville Township, Fayette County, PA” on which are erected a distillery, warehouse, and other improvements, and known as the A. Overholt & Co. Distillery and James G. Pontefract owns the undivided 1/3 interest; Frick leases the site to Pontefract for 5 years to “manufacture, storage and sale of whiskey on said premises.”

According to Henry Clay Frick, by the latter part of March 1881, he has purchased the undivided 2/3 interest in the Broad Ford distillery property, including all brands and marks from C.S.O. Tinstman & C. Fritchman.

According to his testimony, on April 1, Henry Clay Frick leased the firm A.Overholt & Co. to James G. Pontefract to make and mark “whiskey manufactured thereat.”

On or about April 1, according to their own testimony, C. S. O. Tinstman & C. Fritchman acknowledge that they ceased to own the business & distillery property [at Broad Ford?], but they still maintain the validity of their lease granted to James G. Pontefract for the use of the firm name A. Overholt & Co. until April 1, 1883.

1883

On April 1, C. S. O. Tinstman and C. Fritchman expect James G. Pontefract to surrender the rights leased to him for the use of the name A. Overholt & Co. but Pontefract does not comply; Tinstman & Fritchman sue Pontefract.

1886

The suit filed by C. S. O. Tinstman and C. Fritchman against James G. Pontefract reaches the Supreme Court on June 17. [U.S. Supreme Court or PA Supreme Court?]

1888

On August 1, a "portrait of A. Overholt, now deceased" is first used in commerce in association with Overholt Whiskey.

1899

Another building project commences, with the entire plant at Broad Ford being dismantled and reconstructed, and adding new rack warehouses; the construction is finished by 1905.

1905

The plant at the Broad Ford distillery has a daily capacity of 1,500 bushels of grain & 6,450 gallons of whiskey.

1918

Henry Clay Frick & R. B. Mellon are partners in the firm A. Overholt & Co. at Broad Ford; on March 28, Mellon writes to Frick about the “110,000,000 gallons of beverage spirits of all kinds,” and speculates about profits after being ordered to shut down, due to Prohibition.

Prior to December 12, A. W. Mellon, R. B. Mellon, and H. C. Frick each own one-third of the entire capital stock of two distilling corporations -- A. Overholt & Company and West Overton Distilling Company. On that day they form two partnerships in which each partner is to have a one-third interest.

Neither corporation has distilled any whiskey after 1916. The process of liquidating the businesses of each is begun by the two corporations -- the partnerships are organized for this purpose.

1919

In January, A. W. Mellon, R. B. Mellon, and H. C. Frick cause to be transferred to the partnership called A. Overholt & Company all the assets of the corporation of that name; and to the partnership called West Overton Distilling Company, all the assets of that corporation, which include large whisky inventories in bonded warehouses.

The business of the two distilling corporations -- A. Overholt & Company and West Overton Distilling Company -- consists in the sale of whiskey certificates and the storage, bottling, casing, and sale of the stock of whiskey.

Overholt Distillery at West Overton is shut down due to Prohibition, but the Broad Ford distillery remains in operation “for medicinal purposes,” with a capacity of 1,800 bushels of grain & 7,700 gallons of whiskey per day; later the capacity rises to 2,270 bushels of grain & 9,760 gallons of whiskey per day.

On December 2, Henry Clay Frick dies at his home in New York City, and is buried three days later in Pittsburgh, PA, following a private funeral that is attended by Andrew Mellon, the executor of his will; Frick leaves one-sixth of his fortune to his family, and the rest is bequeathed to charitable institutions in New York, Pittsburgh, and the West Overton-Connellsville Coke Region.

1920

The business activities of A. Overholt & Company and West Overton Distilling Company consist of the sale of whiskey certificates and the storage, bottling, casing, and sale of the stock of whiskey.

1925

The assets of the Mellon partnerships then remaining are sold in bulk, and the proceeds are distributed among those entitled to them.

1929

On October 30, A. Overholt and Company files for trademark rights to the label Old Overholt with "a portrait of A. Overholt, now deceased," which is achieved and registered on March 11, 1930.

1933

21st Amendment is ratified and repeals Prohibition.

1938

On May 13, the U.S. Supreme Court enters a judgement against the Mellons in their action against D. B. Heiner, former Collector of Internal Revenue, which was filed to recover an amount paid by them under protest -- taxes on profits made from their partnerships in A. Overholt & Company and West Overton Distilling Company.

1949

On June 16, Karen Rose Overholt is born in Pittsburgh, PA, the first daughter of Arthur Frederic John Overholt, and the great-great-great granddaughter of Abraham Overholt, master distiller.

1957

National Distillery Products Corporation, holder of the trademark rights to Old Overholt, changes its name to National Distillery and Chemical Corporation.

1984

Seminary student K. R. Overholt Grainger visits West Overton for the first time, and is given an abbreviated tour of her ancestor Abraham Overholt's house and distillery building. She is 35 years old, and has longed to visit West Overton since she was about ten years old.

1987

National Distillers and Chemical Corporation assigns the entire interest in the trademark rights to Old Overholt to James B. Beam Distilling Co.

1988

One hundred years after a portrait of the deceased Abraham Overholt is used on the Old Overholt label, the holder of that trademark, James B. Beam Distilling Co., files a "change of name" with the USPTO -- its corporate name changes to Jim Beam Brands Co.

1998

Beginning at the Carrick branch of the Carnegie Library, K. R. Overholt Critchfield begins searching the Internet for all things Overholt, hoping to discover the roots and lost heritage of her family, and connect with long-lost relatives.

1999

K. R. Overholt Critchfield launches a genealogical web site on AOL, The Overholt Family Tree ~~ Karen's Branches.

2000

K. R. Overholt Critchfield launches a new web site on Yahoo! Geo-Cities, naming it The Overholt Family Tree ~~ Karen's Branches.2, which eventually supplants the AOL version.

2004

K. R. Overholt Critchfield goes on a brief safari to explore Broad Ford for the first time with family friend Susan Karas. Equipped with only a few one-time-use cameras, they take memorable photographs of what is left of the A. Overholt and Company distillery site.

Through the efforts of K. R. Overholt Critchfield, the Broad Ford Overholt Distillery site is included in the Pennsylvania At Risk 2004, the annual listing of the Commonwealth's Most Endangered Historic Properties.

2005

K. R. Overholt Critchfield files a trademark application for the mark OLD FARM PENNSYLVANIA PURE RYE WHISKEY, the original name of Abraham Overholt's whiskey, hoping to establish a small batch artisan distillery at West Overton or Broad Ford, and reclaim the heritage of the Overholt family.

2008

Through the efforts of K. R. Overholt Critchfield, the A. Overholt and Company Distillery at Broad Ford is included in the 2008 Top Ten Best Historic Preservation Opportunities, the annual listing made by the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh.

2009

K. R. Overholt Critchfield files a trademark application for the mark OLD FARM, still hoping to establish a small batch artisan distillery at West Overton or Broad Ford, and reclaim the heritage of the Overholt family.

At Broad Ford, the last-standing bonded warehouse and a few other buildings are dismantled by new owner of the site, Terry Shallenberger of Shallenberger Construction, Connellsville, PA.

K. R. Overholt Critchfield launches her own URL for the long running web site, The Overholt Family Tree ~~ Karen's Branches. Via Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting, Karen's Branches returns as a dot-com.