Whiskey Rebellion Festival returns to Washington
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Laney Seirsdale, a docent, and Gerald Roberts, portraying pirate “Black Bart” Roberts, greet visitors to the David Bradford House on South Main Street.
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Dave Budinger explains the significance of a liberty pole while volunteering at the Whiskey Rebellion History and Visitor Center.
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Volunteers Aleta Richmond, left, and Lynnelle Goins welcome visitors to the LeMoyne House on East Maiden Street.
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Emma Bates tells visitors about the David Bradford House’s detached kitchen, built outisde “to make sure house fires didn’t take place.”
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Carol Simmons volunteers with the Oliver Miller Homestead in South Park, which has its own Whiskey Rebellion day scheduled for July 18.
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A member of the Whiskey Rebellion Theatre Troupe takes part in the presentation of “Inglorious Rebels” in the LeMoyne House Garden.
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Rich Baker shows a reproduction of a rare double-barreled pistol, one of the many examples he had on display at the LeMoyne House of knives, guns, axes and tools that early settlers carried and used on a daily basis.
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Robin Matthews and Bob Giacometti perform on the festival stage.
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The Snappin’ Bug String Band performs at the Whiskey Rebellion Festival.
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The Washington Wild Things mascot visits the festival, accompanied by Stephanie Keller.
Observers capture 21st-century images of the Whiskey Rebellion Theatre Troupe’s reenactment of 1790s events in this file photo from 2021.
The Almanac
With the Whiskey Rebellion Festival’s return to Washington on Saturday came many a visitor’s first look inside the Whiskey Rebellion Education and Visitor Center.
Located at 184 S. Main St. in Washington, the center opened in April to provide elucidation about one of the defining events of early American history, when embittered distillers in southwestern Pennsylvania decided to challenge the authority of the new federal government.
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Harry Funk/The Almanac
A 1790s-era still is on display at the Whiskey Rebellion Education and Visitor Center.
“It is the complete story of the Whiskey Rebellion: what led to the rebellion, what caused the rebellion, the results of the rebellion, the timeline,” Tracie Liberatore, the center’s executive director, said. “People thank us all the time for sharing this story and doing it so professionally.”
She also serves in the same capacity for the David Bradford House, built along South Main Street in 1788 and serving as home to one of the main rebellion leaders, until Bradford abruptly left Washington when the rebellion was quelled in 1794.
And around the corner, at 49 E. Maiden St., is the LeMoyne House, Pennsylvania’s first National Historic Landmark of the Underground Railroad.
With the city’s rich history on full display, the Whiskey Rebellion Festival returned after its cancellation in 2020 to welcome hundreds of guests to a full day of tours, reenactments, displays, music, food and, of course, beverages.
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Aleasha Monroe is chief operating officer of West Overton Village in Scottdale, where the distillery is getting ready to introduce its Monongahela Rye Whiskey.
Speaking of which, a new whiskey is on its way to the region, according to Aleasha Monroe, chief operating officer of West Overton Village in Westmoreland County.
Members of the Overholt family, early owners of the East Huntingdon Township homestead, were distillers among other pursuits. And Monroe has resumed the practice.
“Very accidentally, I became the distiller at West Overton. I like science a lot, and I’m not afraid of hard work,” she explained. “Our first 30-gallon barrel is just about ready. So we should have that bottled for sale by fall.”
She acknowledged the folks at Liberty Pole and Red Pump, Washington’s two distillers, with sharing their knowledge.
“Their lines were always open, and any questions that we had about how to do something, they were happy to speak to it,” Monroe said. “I like to say that distilling is about 20% science and 80% janitorial work. There’s a lot of cleaning and scrubbing and mopping. But it’s exciting to watch this product come together and make it to the shelf.”
As for the Whiskey Rebellion Festival, opening activities were on Friday night, featuring the first full performance by the Washington Symphony Orchestra since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saturday’s schedule featured musical entertainment at the festival stage set up in the South Main Street parking lot and in the LeMoyne House garden. A “Li’l Rebels Heritage Area” was featured in the Bradford House Gardens, and the Whiskey Rebellion Theatre Troupe conducted a series of reenactments.
For more information about the Whiskey Rebellion Education and Visitor Center, visit whiskeyrebellioncenter.org.
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Harry Funk/The Almanac
Tyler Smith performs in the reenactment of “Inglorious Rebels” by the Whiskey Rebellion Theater Troupe, presented in the LeMoyne House Garden.