Please note that this limited release Kilbourne Place rye whiskey is sold out.

Frank Agbro (aka Franko)

Kilbourne Place Today

Today, we know Kilbourne Place as a vibrant, festive and artistic place in the heart of Mt. Pleasant.  The annual block party is filled with neighbors, activities, food and entertainment.  On Saturday mornings and other evenings, the street permeates with joyful music, dancing and laughter for all ages, races and members of the community.  Over the last two years, Frank’s “6ft. Aparty” gatherings provided a much needed outlet to help us feel a bit more normal and to provide a much needed outlet to the cabin fever we all inevitably felt.

This is what we love about Mt. Pleasant. Our community is filled with innovators, artists, musicians, self starters, puppeteers, and so much more. You make our community so very unique and this is why we call it home. A portion of the sales of this Kilbourne Place batch of Mt. Pleasant Club Whiskey will be donated to the Mayor of Mt. Pleasant’s “6ft. Aparty” events so we can have many more memories and stories to come.

Maryland Style Rye Whiskey

Why is this a Maryland style rye whiskey and what is that?

In the pre-prohibition era, rye whiskey was the predominant spirit found in the mid-atlantic region.  Rye whiskey is defined as using at least 51% rye in the mash bill prior to distillation and the rye lends to a spicier, bolder whiskey flavor.  The predominance of rye whiskey in this region has roots in farming as rye was one of the major crop in the region.  Going back to the colonial days, farmers did not want leftover crops to go to waste, so they distilled extra grain into spirits.  Leading up to prohibition, Maryland’s distilling industry grew and Maryland was one of the leading producers of whiskey alongside Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

Maryland rye whiskey is characterized as being sweeter than other types of rye whiskey, such as Pennsylvania rye.  This is because Maryland rye whiskey uses more corn in the mashbill, lending to a sweeter overall flavor profile.  The Kilbourne Place batch of Mt. Pleasant Club Whiskey pays homage to the rye whiskey style that was likely present in bottles in the early 1900’s.

Kilbourne Batch

For the Kilbourne batch, we produced two bottlings of this product. The first bottling has an age statement of at least 4 years 8 months and a proof of 101.1. The second bottling has an age statement of at least 5 years and a proof of 107.1. Both bottlings are made from a mash of 29.2% yellow corn, 26.2% un-malted rye, 26.2% malted rye, 17.5% malted barley and 0.9% chocolate malt.  The malted rye and chocolate malt in this mash bill deliver a unique rye whiskey.

The Mt. Pleasant neighborhood in Washington, DC, as well as the surrounding neighborhoods of present day Lanier Heights, Adams Morgan, Pleasant Plains and Columbia Heights, have roots back to the early 18th century. After the Civil War, Samuel Brown named the area Mount Pleasant Village and sold off most of his land, retaining ownership of an area around Brown Street. Sub-divisions of the neighborhood were created based on ownership, with early maps representing different areas of Mt. Pleasant, such as Brown’s Sub (the part he did not previously sell), Walbridge’s Ingleside, Rosemont Park and Ingleside.

Map Caption: 1887 map of Mount Pleasant showing the sub-divisions at that point in time. Until the early 1900’s, Mt. Pleasant extended further east into present day Columbia Heights. Click the map to view a larger image.

Present day Kilbourne Place is located in what was known as the Herman D. Walbridge Subdivision of Ingleside. Starting around 1870, landowners in Washington County (the area outside the Federal City but still within the bounds of the District), began to file maps with the government that showed their lands named and subdivided with notional street layouts. Originally named Joliet Street, today’s Kilbourne Place was one of many streets that had its name changed by the District Commissioners. Under a grant of authority from a 1904 Act of Congress, the Commissioners were authorized to change street names in the outlying areas of the District to fit the established naming convention of the Federal City existing below Boundary Street (today’s Florida Avenue). Hamlin Street was another proposed name for Joliet. In 1905, Joliet Street was officially changed to Kilbourne Place.

Map Caption: Map of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s plan for the Federal City or the city of Washington, dated March 1792, from the Library of Congress. The city’s borders included the Potomac River (at this time, also referred to as the “Potowmac River”) and Rock Creek on the west, Boundary Street (present day Florida Ave) on the north, and the Eastern Branch of the Potomac (later renamed to the Anacostia River) on the east. Click the map to view a larger image.

The majority of the houses on Kilbourne Place were built between 1907-1912 by architects / builders Wm. J. Palmer, N. R. Grimm, George T. Santmyers and H. L. Breuninger. On the north side of the street, most of the houses were built around 1907, whereas on the south side of the street, they were built between 1910-1912. (See the DC Office of Planning website covering Mount Pleasant Historic District maps for more information.)

Why is Kilbourne Place referred to as a “Place” and not a road or street? A “Place” is defined as a road or street that has no throughway or that leads to a dead end. Interestingly, on a map from the 1880’s, Kilbourne Place (or Joliet Street) ended at 17th Street on the east, whereas present day Kilbourne Place ends at Mt. Pleasant Street. Kilbourne is one of three roads in Mt. Pleasant referred to as a “Place” (the others are Walbridge Pl and Meridian Pl).

Map Caption: 188? map of Mount Pleasant showing street names from that point in time. This is a small section of a larger map housed at the Library of Congress that illustrates the area from Florida Ave up the northern part of Mt. Pleasant. Click the map to view a larger image.