Frontier Origins and Settlement

• Establishment: The site was first surveyed in 1773 by Hancock Taylor and the McAfee Company. In 1775, Virginia surveyors and brothers Hancock and Willis Lee established a permanent settlement, naming it Leestown. It marked the first Anglo-American settlement on the north side of the Kentucky River.
• Early Setbacks: Formally recognized by the Virginia General Assembly in 1776, the fledgling village faced severe pressure during the American Revolution. Heightened regional conflicts and attacks by Native Americans forced settlers to temporarily abandon Leestown in 1777.
• Reestablishment: The village was reoccupied and quickly grew into a vital commercial port. In 1783, the Virginia legislature authorized a tobacco inspection warehouse at the location. Because the steep limestone cliffs along the Kentucky River limited viable river crossings, Leestown's natural ford made it a key inland hub.

19th Century: Commerce, War, and Building Materials

• Early Trade: By the time Kentucky achieved statehood in 1792, Leestown was a thriving shipping port. Flatboats loaded local commodities—such as tobacco, hemp, corn, and whiskey—and floated down the Kentucky River to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers en route to New Orleans.
• War of 1812: Due to its established infrastructure and strategic river placement, Leestown served as an important supply and staging base during the War of 1812.
• Quarrying the Capital: In 1827, the limestone blocks used to construct Kentucky’s historic Old State Capitol were quarried directly from the river banks adjacent to Leestown.

The Birthplace of a Bourbon Legacy

In the mid-19th century, Leestown transitioned into a powerhouse for the American spirits industry, leveraging local spring water and the abundant corn harvests of the surrounding Bluegrass counties.

• Distillery Origins: The first commercial distillery was established at Leestown in 1857.
• The Taylor & Stagg Era: In 1870, pioneer distiller Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. acquired the site, naming it the O.F.C. (Old Fire Copper) Distillery. He introduced advanced copper fermentation vats and climate-controlled aging warehouses. Shortly after, he sold the operations to George T. Stagg.
• Prohibition and Survival: Managed later by figures like Albert Blanton (who pioneered single-barrel bourbon concepts), the distillery managed to operate legally through Prohibition by producing medicinal whiskey.

Leestown Today

Leestown has since been absorbed into the modern municipal limits of Frankfort. Its historic footprint is memorialized by Kentucky Historical Marker #103, and its industrial legacy endures directly: the historic distillery complex at Leestown was renamed Buffalo Trace Distillery in 1999, operating continuously on the same riverfront land it occupied over two centuries ago.