Built by Nicholas Kristmas in 1924 as an eighteen room farmhouse, the property had become locally infamous by 1928 as the Blue and Gold Kennel Club, Whitehall Distillery, and Burton's Gold Medal Distillery. Its basement held two bars, one for ordinary patrons and another with a ballroom for elite clientele, while secret passageways and peep holes let onlookers spy on activities behind closed doors. A casino occupied the third floor, where an armed gunman watched for police from a platform by the window. Alcohol was distilled in the carriage house behind the main house, and drinks were served in the speakeasy and at its greyhound race track, where dog racing scores were broadcast to bookies across the country through an extensive system of antennae. Authorities shut down the speakeasy in 1933 after arresting owner George Tex White, an alleged gangster from Chicago, for running an illegal gambling establishment. White sold the property in 1935 and bought it back again two years later, but this era ended in 1938 after a shooting on the property led federal authorities to seize it and put it up for auction. It later became a private residence.
