West Overton celebrates 95 years with museum expansion plans

West Overton Museums will extend use of its iconic distillery building in East Huntingdon this year and has plans for enhancements at the site to be phased in through 2024.

The work will embrace its rye whiskey heritage and include a new display of whiskey bottles from distilleries across Western Pennsylvania in a new, second-floor display.

Beam Suntory, owner and producer of Old Overholt Rye Whiskey, has donated a lead gift to the museum to begin the renovations.

“The leading gift, the charge, is being started by Beam Suntory, but we’re hoping that we can find other financial support, as well,” said Aaron Hollis, co-executive director at the 40-acre site.

West Overton was the birthplace of industrialist Henry Clay Frick, in the southeastern corner of Westmoreland County. His daughter built the museum in his honor 95 years ago.

“West Overton was a place that just told a story about anything from Westmoreland and Fayette counties across nearly three centuries,” Hollis said.. “We’ve really tried to hone that in and narrow it down because, now, there’s a Westmoreland historical society, there’s a Fayette historical society.

“The story of West Overton is a story of industrialization, of change, of the growth of whiskey, of Frick. That alone is a big enough story to tell.”

In celebration of its 95 years, the site will open the distillery’s second floor to visitors after it was temporarily closed several years ago. The bottle display — 250 whiskey bottles representing over 30 historical Pennsylvania distilleries — will be complemented with other whiskey artifacts.

“By the 1870s, 1880s, rye whiskey was its own sort of bonafide industry in Southwestern Pennsylvania,” Hollis said. “There were a lot of distilleries in Pennsylvania at this time, and that’s part of the reason we’re doing this bottle exhibit. It’s to show people the concentration of whiskey distilleries in Pennsylvania, especially before Prohibition. I think there were 12 in Westmoreland County alone.”

The second floor will reopen in phases over this year and next, beginning with the bottle exhibition opening late this year.

Bottles featured in the exhibit will be a combination of the museum’s collection and glassware donated by Sam Komlenic of the nearby community of Ruffs Dale, home of the Dillinger Distillery. He’s collected a multitude of whiskey paraphernalia, including bottles, crates and labels.

Hollis, who leads the site with co-director Patrick A. Bochy, said the multi-year effort will cost several hundred thousand dollars. It is to be funded through a mix of private and public donations. The support from Beam Suntory was key, Hollis said.

“They see West Overton as the birthplace of Old Overholt Rye Whiskey because that label was born from the whiskey that was made at West Overton,” Hollis said. “They’re excited to help us improve the visitor experience and just the ambiance at the birthplace of the brand that they’re invested in and excited about.”

More work planned

Other second-floor changes include a classroom that will allow the museum to expand programming for field trips, a rotating exhibition area and climate-controlled collections storage.

Planning for a new elevator from the distillery’s basement event room to the second floor is underway, as well.

“We’re hoping that’s going to be next year,” Hollis said of the elevator.

Before the second floor will be ready for visitors, the museum will be adding an HVAC system on the floor for heating and cooling. In addition, there will be insulation added and displays for the bottles.

As each renovation is completed, each section of the floor will open for guests. There will be a digital element to the exhibit, developed in collaboration with Culture Connect, that will explain the history of the bottles.

Hollis said they’re studying how shelves will be built to let the light move through the bottles for an optimal display.

“Some of the bottles are clear, some are brown, some are older, some are imperfect. So we want to try to get the lights just so that it captures them,” Hollis said. “A couple of the bottles even have some whiskey left in them. So the way that the light will pass through those versus the empty bottles, it’s going to be really neat.”

In addition to second-floor renovations, the museum has programs planned to commemorate its 95th anniversary.

Marketed as West Overton Village, the site has a new logo, updated website and plans for general improvements on the grounds this spring. Programs set for this year include talks about the life of Henry Clay Frick, establishment of the historic site, special whiskey tastings and a family friendly history weekend.