First Maker’s Mark Family Distillery Built In 1844, T.W. Samuels Distillery in Bardstown Kentucky Being Resurrected As Old SteelHouse Distillery.

Legendary T.W. Samuels Distillery in Deatsville, minutes from downtown Bardstown, is coming back to life. The shuttered distillery is being revived by Georgia-based property developer Rick Puig, Kentucky native Ryan Mollenkopf, and a diverse team. The revived property will be called Old SteelHouse Distillery and will be built as an all-encompassing experience. The grounds will eventually house between 40-50 private cottages, as well as a restaurant, bar, and tasting room. Also on site will be a museum showcasing the incredible authentic history of T.W. Samuels Distillery, the first Maker’s Marks first family distillery. 

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T.W. Samuels Distillery was built in 1844 and operated all the way up until Prohibition in 1920. When Prohibition ended in 1933, T.W. built a new distillery near the original site and made some of the best whiskey around until 1952. For decades afterwards, the beautiful grounds were used to bottle water. Even today, famed distilleries Maker’s Mark and Heaven Hill Distillery age over 170,000 barrels of their fine liquid on the property. 

“I just think the experience is going to be off the charts for people from all over the world that will come, can stay there, create memories there, have events and see all this history,” Mollenkopf said.

The property will eventually include a restaurant, bar, museum, tasting room and house between 40-50 private cottages.

“It’s about inclusion with our museum and everything that we want to create with tours,” Puig said. “We want to be able to do projects with lots of different master distillers and different distilleries and be able to provide unique experiences with that unique product.”

While touring the nostalgic property, you’ll immediately find yourself exploring the historic buildings onsite where all the magic happened to create the legendary T.W. Samuels brand. The equipment still stands in place in its original state. 

If you would like to do a Zoom interview about the resurrection of the first Makers Mark family distillery T.W. Samuels, Rick and Ryan are available for interviews by appointment. Email: contact@oldSteelHouse.com to set up an interview or to request additional information.