Wednesday, February 29, 2012

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.
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 29, 2012 at 6:03 AM

    These are great. Did not know Lorain had so many bottlers. I think Browne drank a little too much of his product.

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 29, 2012 at 7:23 AM

    Devonian Springs are still there across the bridge from St. Joes. Last time I was in the building there was a very slight whiff. The Spa was , for a time, located in what used to be Arthur Moxham's home on Seneca Ave near the car barns where the school is today.
    Out here in Florence Township most of the wells are "sulfur" water and it ain't all that great ....hard to believe folks spend money for that !!!

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  3. Loraine RitcheyFebruary 29, 2012 at 7:33 AM

    St. Josephs Hospital was built in the first place as a healing spa
    It was started in a three-story frame house which sat on the corner of Penfield Ave. and Dexter St. (now called Broadway and 21st St). The house was called the "Devonian Baths" and was built in 1887 over sulpher springs discovered by accident by Gilbert Hogan, who had been drilling for natural gas
    http://www.loraincityhistory.org/lizzie/places/stjoseph/stjoseph_1.htm

    I remember at the one re-opening ( there have been a couple) of the old Roman room the new owner made reference to it being part of the sales part of the the bottling of the water from the wells ...

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  4. -Alan D HopewellFebruary 29, 2012 at 1:30 PM

    Dan-
    The house we lived in, at 1867 Elyria Avenue, had a well in the basement, boarded over by the time I came along; my mother said the water was pure, ice-cold, and newts could be found in it at times. The water came up through a deep shaft, about 4-6' across.

    Considering the proximity (3 blocks)to St. Joes, I wonder if this may have been the same water.

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  5. AnonymousMarch 1, 2012 at 4:09 AM

    Alan, if it smelled and tasted like rotten eggs, it certainly was a part of the same aquifer.
    The current springs are in the building across the street on 21st St.
    The American Carlsbad Sanitarium was at 1980 East 32nd St. "We treat by hydrotherapy and the most improved methods. Devonian mineral from Lorain's natural springs"

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  6. JoaneologistDecember 17, 2018 at 10:07 AM

    Does anyone have information on Lake View Bottling Company?

    ReplyDelete