Lorain Bottle Collection – Part 1

After my post about the Lorain Whistle Bottling Company a few weeks ago, I received a nice email from a gentleman named Jack Tiller. Mr. Tiller has a great collection of vintage Lorain bottles of which he is justifiably proud, and he graciously sent me several photos of some of his collection to share with my readers. One of the photos was of a Whistle bottle from Lorain.

Vintage Whistle Bottle (from Jack Tiller Collection)

I asked him (via email) how he came to collect bottles with a Lorain connection. "I grew up on 11th and Oberlin Ave.," he noted. "We would get pop from Sehers and T&J."

"As young kids, we would play by the Black River, and we would find these old bottles around. I began collecting them and have had some of these for many years." Mr. Tiller also mentioned that he has many dairy bottles and pharmacy bottles from Lorain.

Incidentally, the Whistle soda pop bottle in his collection is not from the Lorain Whistle Bottling Company (which had become the Forrest Distributing Company in the mid-1930's). It's from the Franklin Bottling & Distributing Corp.

Back of same bottle as above  (from Jack Tiller Collection)

The Franklin Bottling & Distributing Corp first appeared in the 1940 Lorain city directory. It was located at 1845 E. 28th Street. Its specialties, according to its 1945 city directory listing, were the aforementioned Whistle, as well as Grapette.

1947 City Directory ad

Around the mid-1950's, the company changed its name to Franklin-Sickles Bottling Co. to reflect a change in ownership and management.

1959 Lorain Phone Book ad

Around 1961, the company moved to 318 15th Street. (Its old location at 1845 E. 28th became the home of Fritz's Garage.) Unfortunately, the company disappeared from the city directory in 1964 as that address was listed as vacant.

Next: More vintage Lorain bottles