What once was a fully functional Overholt Distillery is now not so functional and abandoned. Exploring old buildings probably one of my favorite things to do. The Old Overholt Distillery, or otherwise known as A. Overholt & Company is very much a beautiful, slightly creepy abandoned old building. Apparently, there’s more to it than meets the eye. After reading about the distillery I found so much history and a few ghost stories to go with it.
A truly beautiful site.
Walking along the Great Allegheny Passage in Connellsville you can see the abandoned distillery. From across the way you can see how large and extravagant the buildings are. You will see all the beautifully aged red brick and the old pillars from a bridge that once was. Driving up on-site you realize there were once many more buildings than what remains. Many of the great historic items are all gone. A giant hole lies where the once large company nameplate used to sit posted on the front of one of the buildings.
Looking down from floor 2 so big, and so much debris
The Overholt Distillery was built in the 1850s. 1854 to be exact. At least that’s what I’m told. The distillery was built as an expansion of the West Overton Distilling Company, located in Scottsdale, Pennsylvania. The location of this distillery was chosen because being right on the Youghiogheny River and also close to the new at the time Connellsville and Pittsburgh railway.
The famous rye whiskey that is known as Old Overholt (makes sense) was apparently made here. Although now the whiskey is produced by Jim Beam Company in Kentucky. There really is so much history here, I could go on and on for days, but I will link some places where I found some fun information on the area. Anyway..
These photos below are images of some of the buildings on the property from the outside as well as an old foot bridge.
As the story goes….
In 1859 after only running the company for 5 years, Jacob Overholt the 2/3 shares owner of the company passed away, from unknown circumstances. He was only in his 40’s when he died, which was quite young for having a family history of a long lifespan. People speculate that it was Abraham, Jacob’s father who was the one to kill him. It was to be said that Abraham had a mean temper, especially when it came to money. Once Jacob passed, his father took over his 2/3 majority shares of the company, which clearly opened up a realm of speculation. Apparently, the workers seemed to think that one day, early in the morning before the workers arrived to work the two got into a fight. They believe the fight must have gotten out of hand and Abraham killed Jacob over business or monetary disagreements.
Here comes the spooky part…
After Jacobs’s father took over, two major fires were started at the facility, one in 1884 and one in 1905. The workers say that the ghost of Jacob started them to get revenge on his father. The staff also stated that they would see a ghostly figure watching over the plant and the workers. The figure lurked just like Jacob would if he were alive. Throughout the years more and more people would report vanishing objects and other random things that were very unexplainable. Some even say that to this day if you are alone, or on the grounds at night, you may experience some spooks of your own. Talk about creepy.
Today some of the buildings still stand. Other buildings are piles of brick in an overgrown field, but the stories and the history remains.
Anyway, thats about all I have time for today. If you’re interested in some nifty history the Old Overholt Distillery and the Overholt family is a great place to start.
P.S. If your interested in reading more about the history of the Overholt family here are some links to websites I found with some great reads.
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