Laird & Company is a distillery located at 1 Laird Road in the Scobeyville section of Colts Neck Township in

Monmouth County, New Jersey Monmouth County () is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is bordered to its west by Mercer and Middlesex Counties, to its south by Ocean County, to its east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to its north ...

, United States. Founded by Robert Laird, it is the oldest licensed

distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and received License No. 1 from the

U.S. Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

in 1780. Laird has a rectifier and blender license from the

New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control The New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (Division of ABC or, simply, ABC) is an agency of the government of the state of New Jersey that regulates commerce in alcoholic beverages in that state. The 21st Amendment to the United Stat ...

History

The history of the company can be traced to the immigration of William Laird from

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

to Monmouth County in 1698. He was among the first to produce

applejack AppleJack was a command-line interface for Mac OS X that provided a simplified user interface for single user mode system repairs. It allowed for permission repair, disk repair, cache cleaning, validation of preference- and property list file ...

in the area. His descendant, Robert Laird, served in the Continental Army under

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

. Washington asked Laird for his recipe for "cyder spirits" before the Revolution. Today, none of the company's production is located in New Jersey. It obtains all its apples from central Virginia and distills its products in North Garden, Virginia. Distilling at its New Jersey facilities ceased in 1972 and Laird's only blends, ages and bottles its products in Scobeyville. The Scobeyville property was listed as the Laird & Company Distillery Historic District on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on October 31, 2024, for its significance in agriculture, architecture, and industry. The

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

includes 5

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

, 2 contributing sites and 1 contributing structure. The Laird family's residence was built in three phases. The oldest section may date to before the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. The next section was built around 1849 and the final section in 1934, when the house became the administrative office for the company. It features

Colonial Revival architecture The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

. The Still House was built between the 1880s and 1933. Three distilling equipment rooms were added in 1934 and 1935. The pond was created in 1934 by damming the Yellow Brook. The water was used for cooling the distilling equipment. With accompanying 65 photos. File:1 Laird Road, Scobeyville, NJ.jpg, Former Laird family's residence, now administrative office File:Home of Laird's Apple Jack sign, Laird & Company, Scobeyville, NJ.jpg, Home of Laird's Apple Jack File:Still House and pond, Laird & Company, Scobeyville, NJ.jpg, Still House and pond

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laird and Company Distilleries in New Jersey American distilled drinks Colts Neck Township, New Jersey Companies based in Monmouth County, New Jersey 1780 establishments in New Jersey

History

See also

References

External links