Greetings from the Historic Samuels House!

I am truly excited to invite you to visit this beautifully preserved home that has played such a significant role in my family's history. Believed to have been built around 1820 by John Samuels (the son of my namesake, Robert Samuels, who made whisky for George Washington's troops in the Revolutionary War), the house was the most prominent residence in what was known as Samuels, Kentucky. Over succeeding generations, the house has had a front-row view of history, including the surrender of the last armed group still fighting at the end of the Civil War. That group included the notorious Frank James who, standing in the front yard of the house, turned over his pistol to the sheriff, T.W. Samuels, who was my great-great-great-grandfather.

With so much history and charm wrapped up in this remarkable house, it seemed the perfect place for us to display eight generations of heirlooms for the first time, making good use of them to welcome you into the essence of our family. That includes some 50 bottles of whisky spanning 150 years of distilling, from the days of the old T.W. Samuels brand on through my grandparents' creation; Maker's Mark. We'll even show you some of the English pewter collection that inspired my grandmother, Margie Samuels, to name their new bourbon Maker's Mark, and the deep fryer she used to experiment with dipping bottles in what later became the brand's signature red wax.

Mostly, we're thrilled to carry on another of my grandmother's great traditions - throwing open our doors to extend the warm hospitality that was so important to her. Margie is often credited with inventing bourbon tourism, as she was welcoming friends and visitors to the Maker's Mark Distillery on Star Hill Farm a generation before anyone thought of a Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

So, when you arrive here, we intend to make sure you feel just as welcome and as at-home as my grandmother would have insisted.

We hope you'll visit soon!

Rob Samuels
Eighth-Generation Whisky Maker