The Bottle, Alabama
The Bottle, Alabama is a community located in the northern corporate limits of Auburn, Alabama. The Bottle is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 280 and Alabama Highway 147, five miles (8 km) north of downtown Auburn, and adjacent to the Auburn University North Fisheries Research Complex.
The Bottle is located at 32°40'34"N 85°29'11"W; its elevation is 760 feet (230 m).
The Bottle is named for the bright orange wooden replica of a Nehi soda bottle which stood in the location for nine years during the 1920s and 1930s.
[edit] History
Built in 1924, and billed as "the world's largest bottle", The Bottle (sometimes referred to as The "Nehi Inn") was built by John F. Williams owner of the Nehi Bottling Company in Opelika, Alabama. The Bottle stood 64-feet (19.5 m) tall, and measured forty-nine feet (14.94 m) in diameter at the base, and 16 feet (4.88 m) at the cap. The ground floor was a grocery store and service station, and the 2nd and 3rd floors were living quarters and storage. The neck of the Bottle had windows so it could be used as an observation tower where you could see miles of countryside. The "bottle cap" was the roof. Inside there was a spiral oak stairway. Fire consumed the Bottle in 1933, destroying the largest bottle in the world and ending an era of a gathering place for tourists and local men to swap yarns around a potbellied wood stove, BBQs and a party every Friday night on the balcony above the service station.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stopped briefly at The Bottle after visiting Auburn. So did comedienne Minnie Pearl.
Even though the Bottle structure no longer exists, the name does and is still on Alabama maps listing the area as "The Bottle."
[edit] Today
Currently, in The Bottle's former location stands only an empty lot. The property was put on sale in 2005 by First Realty of Auburn. The land was purchased in early 2006 by The Hayley Redd Development Company
[edit] References
- Sybalsky, Jill. Great niece of builder, owner and operator John F. Williams.
- Logue, Mickey & Simms, Jack (1996). Auburn: A Pictorial History of the Lovliest Village, Revised. Auburn, Ala. ISBN 1-885860-08-0
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Coordinates: 32°40′34″N 85°29′11″W / 32.67611°N 85.48639°W
