The Lorain Whistle Bottling Company Part 2

Looking south across the tracks at where Lorain Whistle Bottling Co. was located at 1138 Lexington 

Sometime in the mid-1930's or so, the Lorain Whistle Bottling Company became The Forrest Distributing Company Inc. It remained at the 1138 Lexington Avenue address, but the Zurcher family was now joined by the Forrest family in the running of the company.

The 1937 city directory ad now described the company as 'wholesale distributors of the finest beers, ale and porter. The business would continue at that address right up into the early 1980's.

1958 Lorain Phone Book ad

Around 1983, the listing for 1138 Lexington Avenue changed to the RKK Distributing Company. By 1988, however, the Prie-Fit Machine Corp had taken over that address, and apparently that was the end of decades of bottling and beverage heritage at that location.

That area by the railroad tracks had really been a hotbed of bottling and beverage distribution in the old days. The William Seher Company, and later, the T. J. Bottling Company, had been located just up the street at 304 12th Street.

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One of the beers pictured in the Forrest Distributing Company ad above is none other than the traditional Brady family beer of choice while I was growing up: Old Dutch.

Stop back here next time for a look at this beer that was our family favorite.