Bernheim Brothers bought the Pleasure Ridge Park Distillery in Louisville and it began operating as the Bernheim Distillery. In March 1896, the distillery's bonded warehouse at Pleasure Ridge Park, which it shared jointly with another whiskey business, was destroyed by fire. The loss of the property itself was covered by insurance, but the cost of the unpaid whisky tax on the lost product proved difficult to settle for the business – the matter was not settled until near the end of 1897. The courts eventually ruled that the tax was not due since the whiskey had been destroyed by the fire before it was sold. The company's new distillery plant (on the north side of Main Street, near 2nd) began operating in April 1897.