Silver Springs Distillery was established in 1867 by G.W. West & Brothers. They operated the distillery for four years until it was sold and relocated outside of Fayette County in 1871. In 1880, the property was sold to Nathaniel Harris; he rebuilt the distillery on top of the famed Silver Springs. This spring supplied pure limestone water at the daily rate of two hundred thousand gallons. The distillery was half stone and half frame, with twelve thousand square feet of floor area. The distillery had one hundred seventy mash tubs of eighty gallons each and four fermentation tubs of five thousand gallons each. The doubler had the capacity of six hundred gallons.

Production was started in January of 1881, producing the N. Harris brand of “pure hand-made sour mash whiskey”. The grain bill included one hundred bushels, divided between eighty-six bushels of corn and fourteen bushels of rye and barley. The sour mash was allowed to ferment for seventy-two hours. The property had three warehouses that were built of stone and iron-clad. After the first year, the warehouses held fourteen hundred thirty five barrels of bonded bourbon.

The distillery was sold during the whiskey recession to Colonel James E. Pepper in 1895. Operations at the distillery remained halted for the next five years.  In 1890, the distillery was rebuilt and two new warehouses were constructed. These two warehouses had the capacity of five thousand barrels each. The distillery became known as the “Little Pepper Distillery” producing “Old Henry Clay”, a rye whiskey. The new distillery could mash four hundred sixty bushels or roughly forty-six barrels of rye whiskey per day. The distillery was leased to and operated by the Jas. E. Pepper & Company.

After Pepper’s death, the distillery was sold to Joseph Wolf. The distillery continued to operate until Prohibition of 1918 during this time the distillery was dismantled. Today, the site is the Silver Springs Farm Eqwine & Vineyard. The springs still flows but only under the ruins left of the distillery, nothing remains of the warehouses, the last warehouse was demolished in 1962. The distiller’s house built in 1880 is now the home of Allen and Leslie Carter.