Reston

The A. Smith Bowman Distillery is a distillery that was originally based on the Bowman family's Sunset Hills Farm in Fairfax County, Virginia, USA,... in what later became the planned community of Reston. It was founded in 1934, after the end of Prohibition, by Abram Smith Bowman and his sons, Smith and DeLong. In February 1988, it relocated to Spotsylvania County, near Fredericksburg, into a former FMC Corp. cellophane plant at One Bowman Drive, where operation continues as a microdistillery. The current A. Smith Bowman distillery is part of the Sazerac Company, which is a large privately-owned liquor producer with headquarters in New Orleans. It produces Virginia Gentleman bourbon and other products including non-bourbon whiskey, rum, vodka, and gin. The building in which the distillery originally operated was constructed circa 1892, serving as the town hall for Wiehle, as well as a church. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service in 1999, and has been the subject of several rezoning applications. A proposal to construct condominiums on the site was approved September 24, 2007.
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Matthew Thomas Duke is an American musician and singer-songwriter who was born in Reston, Virginia and raised in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey.... He released an independent album, Winter Child, through the student-run MAD Dragon Records at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Later he signed to the major label Rykodisc and has since released multiple albums: two full-length albums, Kingdom Underground and One Day Die, and two EPs. Duke was born in Reston, Virginia to Angela, a teacher, and Thomas, a contracts negotiator. He is of Irish, Italian and Polish descent, and grew up with a religious Irish Catholic upbringing. He lived in Reston until the age of 5, when his family moved to Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, where he lived until adulthood. Growing up in South Jersey he attended the Our Lady of Good Counsel parish grade school until 8th grade, and then the all-male, private Jesuit St. Joe's Prep in Philadelphia for high school. As a child and teenager, he performed in local theatre productions through school and community programs. In his late teens and early 20s he worked a variety of jobs including: sandwich maker, framer, gardener and construction worker.
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Virginia , officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state located in the South Atlantic region of the United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth... is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city and Fairfax County the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's population is over eight million. The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony. Slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colony's early politics and plantation economy.
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