LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY

Meet a historic bourbon brand reborn

James E. Pepper brings a historic Kentucky whiskey name back to life in Lexington’s Distillery District. The restored distillery gives visitors a chance to explore the brand’s past, see a working production site, and learn how the Pepper family’s whiskey legacy connects to the city. Its story combines entrepreneurship, changing tastes, and a revival that returned distilling to the historic property. Visitors can discover the relationship between the family name, the Old 1776 label, and the revival of the brand, while enjoying a distinctive stop in one of Lexington’s most character-rich neighborhoods.

The history behind the distillery

The Pepper family’s whiskey tradition reaches back to the late eighteenth century. James E. Pepper, born in 1850, carried that family name forward and built his Lexington distillery in 1880. He promoted his whiskey as Old 1776, invoking the family’s claimed Revolutionary-era recipes, and the large, technologically advanced plant became an important part of Lexington’s industrial landscape. Production at the site eventually ceased, and the complex stood quiet for decades. A later revival restored the James E. Pepper brand and the historic property; distilling recommenced there in December 2017. The revived operation connects contemporary bourbon-making to the people and buildings that made the Pepper name famous in Kentucky whiskey history.

What visitors can take away

The James E. Pepper site also reflects the transformation of a historic industrial area into a place where people gather, explore, and discover Lexington’s past. The old distillery buildings are a visible reminder of the scale and ambition of nineteenth-century whiskey production, while the renewed operation gives the property a working purpose again. Visitors can connect the family’s promotional flair, including the Old 1776 name, with the changing fortunes of bourbon businesses over time. The revival makes the site especially compelling: it is not simply a brand using an old name, but a renewed effort to make whiskey again in a historic Lexington setting. That link between neighborhood, building, and label gives the visitor experience a distinctive local character.