A. Smith Bowman Distillery

A. Smith Bowman Distillery
The now abandoned whiskey distillery, long operated by the Bowman family.
A. Smith Bowman Distillery is located in Northern Virginia
A. Smith Bowman Distillery
A. Smith Bowman Distillery is located in Virginia
A. Smith Bowman Distillery
A. Smith Bowman Distillery is located in the United States
A. Smith Bowman Distillery
Location1875 Old Reston Avenue, Reston, Virginia
Coordinates38°57′24.2″N 77°21′5″W / 38.956722°N 77.35139°W / 38.956722; -77.35139
Built1892
NRHP reference No.99001503[1]
VLR No.029-5014
Significant dates
Added to NRHPDecember 9, 1999
Designated VLRSeptember 15, 1999[2]

The A. Smith Bowman Distillery is a distillery that was originally based on the Bowman family's 7,200-acre Sunset Hills Farm in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, in what later became the planned community of Reston. The distillery was founded in 1934 on the day after the end of Prohibition, by Abram Smith Bowman and his sons, Abram Smith, Jr., and DeLong.[3] From the time of its founding until the 1950s, it was the only legal whiskey distillery in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The primary brands produced by the distillery were the Virginia Gentleman and Fairfax County bourbon whiskeys.[3] In February 1988, it relocated to Spotsylvania County, near Fredericksburg, into a former FMC Corp. cellophane plant at One Bowman Drive, where operation continues as a microdistillery owned by the Sazerac Company.[4]

  1. ^ "NPS Focus". National Register ofHistoric Places. National Park Service. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
  2. ^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  3. ^ a b "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form" (PDF). 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-08-04. Retrieved 2007-09-02.
  4. ^ "A. Smith Bowman Distillery Web Site". 2014.