The "Milk Bottle" building in Spokane, Washington was a pretty clear advertisement; no words were necessary to get the message across. Standing at 321 S. Cedar and created in 1935 for the Benewah Creamery Co. the building was one of six planned and two actually built. The one on S. Cedar has a sister located at 802 W. Garland. The unusual creations were the work of architectural firm Whitehouse and Price and are reported to have cost $3700 each. The buildings were constructed as retail ...
THE BENEWAH MILK BOTTLES
321 S. Cedar, Spokane, WA, USA [Approximate]
802 W. Garland, Spokane, WA, USA
47°39'9.84"N 117°25'55.64"W
47°41'36.93"N 117°25'23.94"W
... stores for Benewah Creamery Co. owner and operator Paul E. Newport. Newport hailed from St. Maries, Idaho which was the country seat of Benewah County named for Chief Benewah of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. It's no great stretch to see where the inspiration for the name of his company came from. Newport and his Creamery moved to Spokane in 1922.
Newport's advertising for the Benewah Creamery Co. around the time of the construction of the "Bottles" in 1935 stated the bottles were:
"designed to build better men and women by making dairy products attractive to boys and girls. No expense will be spared to make these new stores as sturdy as fine, and as good as the products they represent."
The properties were stuccoed from the base to where they begin to taper to the bottle neck with the neck and cap being constructed using sheet metal over a wood frame.
The last of Newport's retail outlets closed in 1978 and the Benewah Creamery Co. had gone the way of the Dodo by 1979. Since then the Garland location has been a secondhand store and is now home to Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle sandwich shop. The Cedar building now houses the Spokane County Democratic Central Committee and is listed in the National Register Of Historic Places though a search for the record returns a page stating it has not yet been digitized.
Every where we have been able to find addresses listed the Cedar building is reported as located at 321 S. Cedar St. A Google Maps search for the address puts you about a block off so we have listed the address as approximate.
- Cedar
- Garland
- Google Maps Cedar
- Google Maps Garland
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Sources
Demolition Mania
The Spokesman-Review
Waymarking.com
Ranker.com
Time
Wikipedia
