Broad Ford Distressed
Compiled & Written by K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 8-28-2009
Photographs & Commentary by cjb19772009
~~ Updated 9-13-09 ~~

~~ Flickr Photographer at Broad Ford ~~

The next few pages are filled with photographs made by Flickr photographer cjb19772009, currently known as Mtnbiker09. The series is called Broad Ford Distressed, and includes Broad Ford Distressed Summer, because who knows how long this period of abandonment, distress and demolition will last? Doubtless there will be future pages added to the series, although it sure would be lovely to do a few pages with titles like, Broad Ford Saved, Broad Ford Renovated, and Broad Ford Celebrates New Life! We can only hope!

viewer comment: "Looks like the building in the foreground is leaning!"

cjb comment: "I haven't determined yet whether it is or not. Sometimes I thought it was too. Could be my weird photo angles. But the ground these buildings are on is extremely soft and it lies on a flood plain by the river. So it's possible. Also looked like it was leaning in my panorama photo."

Susan Karas at the Base of the Granary - Photograph by K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2004

My set of blueprints does not include drawings of the Grain Elevator and Granary. However, the Fayette County Assessment Office web site does offer some structural information. The records online may have been submitted by previous owner Sullivan D'Amico of Pechin Leasing, Dunbar, PA, now deceased. According to the records, the dimensions of the Grain Elevator are 45' x 40', and the Granary is 45' x 95' -- the two structures are melded on the 45-foot side. If you see the building from only one angle, a detail that can be easily missed is that the Granary has three bins on one side and four bins on the other.

~~ Report of 2004 Fire in the "Cafeteria" ~~

Shortly after my Broad Ford Safari, I heard there had been a fire at the Overholt Distillery site. Somebody at church alerted me to the event, saying there had been a brief news story on TV about it. For me, this was terrible news, for I had just been to Broad Ford, and had fallen in love with the place. Which building had suffered the fire? How much of it had burned? I went online to find area newspaper articles and photos taken at the scene, but it was never clear to me exactly which building was the one identified as "the cafeteria."

The issue remained unsolved, even after a January 2005 phone call to a State Trooper who told me what was in the official report -- the cafeteria building was "the one closest to the railroad tracks and the farthest out from the complex." And the mystery lingered on, until I saw the photographs posted by cjb. His comments about the cafeteria being the location of the fire, plus information from some blueprints that I have, told me the "cafeteria" was actually the Bonded Bottling House. My thanks to cjb for finally clearing up this mystery, and for providing such great photos of the interior. To me, the damage does not look catastrophic. In fact, the place may have great possibilities for renovation!

~~ Future Location of Karen's Old Farm Distillery? ~~

I have been wondering if the Bottling House is the building that would best suit my needs, the one to acquire for a small batch artisan distillery. It might be perfect, being close to the railroad tracks, small enough to renovate, strong enough to keep everything secure, and large enough to fit a shiny new copper still, much like the ones being installed by other artisan or "craft" distilleries all over the nation. The building looks like a real mess now, but maybe a renovation could be managed, before somebody decides to demolish it.

Refresher: By way of an elevated corridor, the Distillery Building is attached to the Old Fermenting House at the second-floor level. In turn, the New Fermenting House (aka Fermenting House Annex) is attached to, and set back from, the Old Fermenting House.

In his Flickr set, cjb identifies these buildings as the After-Processing Warehouse, but the National Park Service report describes them as the Machine Shop and Drying House, connected to the New Fermenting House. Either the Machine Shop is the one-story building, and the Drying House is the multi-storied building, or the Drying House is on the left and the Machine Shop (with the little house on the roof) is on the right. Or perhaps this whole structure is the Machine Shop, and the Drying House was a building on the far right, which now is only ruins. The NPS report is a bit unclear about this, stating as follows.

"Attached to and set back from [the old fermenting house] is the new fermenting house. The machine shop and drying house are attached to the new fermenting house. Of stretcher-bond yellow brick, these buildings are one and three stories high, the machine shop has a monitor roof, and pads for a Dorr thickening tank and stillage tanks are adjacent to the drying house."

Wondering what they were drying? Me, too! Maybe they were drying grain? These appear to be some of the oldest buildings in the whole complex, and they are very close to the river. There must have been a good reason for their location and for their age. Perhaps at one time, early in the history of the Overholt distillery, barges of grain were coming upriver and downriver to the complex. Perhaps the grain had to be off-loaded and dried before it was sent to be stored in the granary. If the remains of a dock were found on the riverside, next to the building, maybe more of the story could be extrapolated.

Granted, it is a long way from there to the grain elevator, and if I had grown up on a farm or worked in a distillery, maybe the particulars of the process would not be such a mystery to me. But until all that is solved, I believe the clues we now have suggest the pictures below were taken in the Drying House, which has a yellow brick exterior and an interior of old red brick -- and cjb has given us the following great interior shots.

To me, the photo above looks to be expecting something -- either someone to climb the stairs, or someone to appear at the top of the stairs on the way down. It is a sad story of abandonment, too -- notice the missing bricks in the frame of the lower window, not to mention the other signs of distress. It is impressive to see how much care was given into the construction of a facility that should have lasted for many more generations.