By Richard Thomas

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

Closed since 1972, the Old Taylor Distillery’s faux castle architecture has long been a favorite with urban explorers and bourbon historians alike. Now a bourbon boom that has already seen millions of dollars invested in the state of Kentucky might breathe new life into the abandoned distillery.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority gave preliminary approval to a $250,000 tax break for a projected $4.2 million renovation of the defunct distillery property, located in Woodford County about five miles south of the state capitol of Frankfort.

A company named Peristyle LCC, formed last month by William Miles Arvin Jr. of Nicholasville, Kentucky. Arvin holds a 20% stake in Peristyle. The distillery is anticipated to create 10 full-time jobs.

Old Taylor was built in the 1880s, with the main building using hand-cut limestone blocks and designed to resemble a castle, complete with turrets and crenulations. Jim Beam was the last company to make bourbon there, and continued using the warehouses until the 1990s. They sold the property to an Atlanta investment group, who harvested the out-buildings for its vintage brick, stone, and pine lumber to use in the housing boom of the 2000s.

The Old Taylor brand continues as a Sazerac product, made by Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort. Acquisition of the Old Taylor property does not include the Old Taylor brand, and what Peristyle might call their bourbon products remains unknown.