George Washington's Whiskey Distillery: commanding spirits
George Washington was more than just a politician and a general – he was a whiskey maker. The founding father maintained a whiskey distillery about three miles from his Mount Vernon estate, where it cranked out 11,000 gallons of whiskey at its peak in 1799. A renovation of his gristmill, the miller's house, and a reconstruction of his distillery exists in its original location and is open to the public.
Even though the replicated buildings are not the originals, Washington's distillery is still on the National Register of Historic Places because of its distinctive characteristics of that time period and are of historical importance. Washington built the original stone gristmill in 1771 to produce flour and cornmeal, both for use in his home and for export around the world. The mill uses a large water wheel from the Dogue Run Creek, where water was diverted from Piney Branch. In 1797, the whiskey distillery was built next to the mill and was the largest and most successful at its time. The distillery burned in 1814.
In 1933, the Commonwealth of Virginia recreated the gristmill and miller's house and opened as a state park, though it fell to disrepair and neglect through the years. In 1997, major renovations were done and the distillery itself was completed and opened in 2007. Today, visitors can watch as costumed docents operate the copper stills and manage the boiler to demonstrate 18th century distilling process. There's also a storage cellar of barrels, two bedrooms, and an office. The museum portion upstairs explains the history of whiskey in America and at Mount Vernon.
The gristmill also features millers in period costume operating the machinery to show how flour was produced. The gristmill itself uses millworks from an 1818 gristmill in Front Royal, Va. Its reconstruction used archeological and documentary evidence of its original, with an elevator and restroom facilities added for the public.
Tickets cost $4 for adults and $2 for children, but may be combined with a ticket from Mount Vernon for $2 adults and $1.50 children. There's public transportation from the estate and the gristmill, or visitors can drive themselves between the two.
Posted by Rin-rin Yu
