Lorain Bottle Collection – Part 2

Here's some more bottles from the collection of Jack Tiller. It's a pretty impressive collection with several rare and unusual items. (Click on each of the photos for a larger view.) The bottles, with their classic typography, are actually little works of art, each beautiful in their own way.

The Lorain Bottling Works bottle below is labeled KOEGLE PROP.

The KOEGLE is F. A. Koegle, the manager, as indicated in this 1915 Lorain City Directory listing.

This Coca-Cola Bottling Co. example (below) is interesting, because the company had the same address – 1138 Lexington Avenue – in the 1921-22 city directory as the Whistle Bottling Company (the former Lorain Bottling Co.).

1921 City Directory listing

Here's a really neat bottle labeled "Brownie" with an impish advertising mascot on it.

I'm guessing it's the same Brownie product, mentioned in the 1928 article (here), that the Lorain Whistle Bottling Company produced, using Hershey's cocoa and Borden's milk in flake form.

Here's a vintage Brownie advertising sign that I found on the internet showing the mascot as well as the bottle in action. The drink appears to have lasted all the way into the 2000's, but it's unclear if it is still being manufactured.

Getting back to Mr. Tiller's collection, here's one from the Riverside Bottling Works.

I couldn't find any information on Riverside in the city directories at the library, but Mr. Tiller says the company was located at 211 Fifth Avenue in 1907; after 1910, the address was 12th Street.

According to Mr. Tiller, this seltzer bottle (below) from the Lorain Bottling Company is very rare. (I really like Mr. Tiller's colorful backdrops for his bottles!)

Here's a closeup of his Devonian Mineral Water bottle.

According to the Lorain Public Library's online History of Lorain, mineral water was discovered in 1887 in Central Lorain. It also notes that the Devonian baths were opened that year, and that Mr. G. Hogan shipped his mineral water, bottled in Lorain, to locations in other states.

Lastly is this Acme Refreshment Company bottle. The company was located at 2406 Broadway, and J. J. O'Doherty was the President.

The company first appeared in the 1919 city directory. It continued to be listed until the 1929 directory, when its address was listed as vacant.

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Special thanks to Jack Tiller for sharing these photos from his great bottle collection! It's a nice capsule history of some of Lorain's bottling heritage.