The Bottle, Alabama

North Fisheries Research Complex.

The Bottle is located at 32°40'34"N 85°29'11"W; its elevation is 760 feet.

The Bottle (sometimes referred to as The "Nehi Inn") was built by John F. Williams owner of the Nehi Bottling Company in Opelika, Alabama in 1924. The ground floor was the grocery store and service station, 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 and miles of countryside. The "bottle cap" was the roof. Inside there was a spiral oak stairway. Unfortunately fire consumed the Bottle in 1936 (most likely started from the furnace or gas lamp) ending 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. Even though the Bottle no longer exists the name does, and is still on Alabama maps listing the area as "The Bottle."

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.

Built in 1924, and billed as "the world's largest bottle", 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 structure contained a gas station, grocery store, and residence. Observation windows built into the neck of the bottle provided a view of miles of countryside.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stopped briefly at The Bottle after visiting Auburn as did Minnie Pearl.

The Bottle itself burned down in 1933, most-likely due to faulty electrical wiring.

Despite the loss, the name for the area stuck, and the community officially became "The Bottle, Alabama".

Currently, in The Bottle's former location stands only an empty lot. The property was put on sale in 2005 by [http://www.auburnrentals.com First Realty] of Auburn. The land was purchased in early 2006 by [http://www.hayleyredd.com The Hayley Redd Development Company]

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