Old Frankfort Pike is as beautiful a stretch of backroad blacktop as that found anywhere. Running roughly between I-64 and Lexington, Kentucky, “OFP,” a.k.a. Hwy 1681, winds past horse farms so meticulously maintained that humans envy the lifestyles of the equine athletes galloping in the fields.

Yet then, for no clear purpose, the road’s name becomes Manchester St. just outside Lexington’s city limits and at the location of James E. Pepper Distilling Co. The massive derelict complex, abandoned in 1958 when the distillery closed, has been locals’ unofficial choice to host a haunted house. But in 2013, developers began…