Milk Bottle Building #2 - Spokane, WA
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 47° 41.615 W 117° 25.400
11T E 468234 N 5282330
Though six were planned, only two of the Benewah Milk Bottle buildings were ever built, at a cost of $4,000 each in 1935. This milk bottle is at 802 West Garland Avenue.
Waymark Code: WMJVJ7
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 01/03/2014
Views: 5
The result of
architectural kitsch, a trend which began in California in the 1920s, these thirty eight foot tall milk bottle shaped buildings were the brainchild of Paul Newport, then owner of Benewah Creamery, originally of St. Maries, Idaho. They were designed by the well known architectural firm of Whitehouse & Price, best known for having designed St. John's Episcopal Cathedral. The intent of the buildings, purely and simply, was to sell milk to kids.
Thirty eight feet tall and fifteen feet in diameter at the base, each also had an addition at the rear for coolers. They were used for many years as retail outlets for the creamery, but by 1985 the buildings were fifty years old and were no longer owned by the creamery. In 1985, the building on Garland Avenue was a second hand shop and the one on South Cedar street was used for storage.
In 2011 this building, the Garland Avenue building, was badly damaged by fire, but was rebuilt and reopened as a quaint little diner,
Mary Lou's Milk Bottle.
The other building, the South Cedar building, is today offices for
Mr. Chimney & Masonry, a chimney and masonry service and installation company. In 1986 it was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its being of an architectural style unique to the 1920s and 1930s.