I would make a lousy archeologist. When I spotted the glint of bottle glass in the wall cavity between two windows in our house, did I photograph it in situ? No, I did not. Instead, I picked it up, took it right into the bathroom (because we no longer have a kitchen sink!) and washed all the dust off so that I could read the label. It reads:
AMERICAN
1905 (?)
Pure Bourbon
bottled by The American Catering Company
1510 West Lake Bvd. Seattle, Wash.
The back of the bottle is stamped:
1/2 PINT
FULL MEASURE
The tear in the label runs through the last digit of the date, but I think that what I see is the left edge of a 5. Our house was built in 1908.
The bottle is about 7 1/4 inches tall, 3 inches wide, and 1 inch deep. It’s clearly a mass-produced bottle, with thin seam marks running down each side. It might’ve fit nicely into the pocket of a pair of overalls.
Some of the things that we’ve found while demolishing the kitchen have made me want a drink, but whoever left this bottle in our wall didn’t leave any for me.
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As for whoever left it, hopefully the use of it did not affect their work.
An antique for sure. Was it anywhere near any defects in the wall construction? I can imagine someone hiding it when the job foreman came by.
What a great find.
Back in the days of my misspent youth I did demolition commercially. One time I found a cubbyhole under some stairs in an old building a stash of dentists tools from about 100 years ago. And a beautiful old wooden lightbox with a still working lightbulb labelled “Edison.”
I wonder if you could get a bottle of 2005 bourbon to (drink and then) seal in the wall along with a picture of the other bottle and a copy of your story. (Presumably the exhumed bottle will find a place to be displayed in the new kitchen, no?)
Your maternal grandfather would have appreciated that bottle since bourbon was his favorite drink. But I always thought of it as a Southern or an Appalachian drink. Maybe not all the craftspeople in Seattle at that time were Scandinavians from the middle west.
Wow, what a cool find! I like what srp said! If only the bottle could tell you it’s history!!
Man, I wish an alcoholic left secret bottles in my house for me to find. Bummer.
Interesting bottle though, definately a keeper.
Just to be clear: finding this bottle isn’t a sufficient reason to remodel any more rooms.
What a find. Are you putting a newer vintage in your new walls for future renovationists to find?