Work crews are busy restoring the giant Vess Soda bottle near Route 66 in St. Louis to mark the company’s 100th anniversary.
According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch:
The 34-foot tall, steel bottle will get a new paint job. On Friday morning, workers removed piles of trash from the base of the bottle and gave the fence a new coat of paint. […]
Vess Soda has teamed with Antique Architectural Decor of St. Louis to complete the restorations. In July, the renewed bottle will be revealed to friends and family of the company.
The newspaper reported the giant Vess Soda bottle originally was installed in 1952 at Hampton and Gravois avenues in St. Louis.
After it was found in storage, the bottle was reinstalled in 1990 near at Sixth and O’Fallon streets north of what was called the Trans World Dome, the home of the St. Louis Rams NFL team.
According to earlier reporting by the Post Dispatch, the bottle featured more than 600 feet of neon tubing when first installed.
The bottle sits a few blocks east of the Tucker Boulevard alignment of Route 66 near downtown.
(Image of the giant Vess Soda bottle in St. Louis by Matt via Flickr)
When I was a child, we never drank soda pop – just juice, tea and ice water. However, come Christmastime, Santa was left cookies and big bottles of VESS Strawberry Pop (in a big glass bottle) by the hearth. One year, I was awakened in the late evening by my Dad and a couple of his friends, laughing, swap’n jokes and glug-glug’n that red soda (and occasionally burping, which only produced more laughter!) It was then – ‘a Lightbulb came on’ – and I realized ‘There is No Santa Claus,’ cause they ate and drank his treats!
It is marvelous this bit of Americana Advertising / a beloved landmark is being restored.
Oh yes — today, I still have one of those huge VESS bottles; It is a priceless possession / an empty bottle that can hold memories…
Cool looking piece…can’t wait to see it restored.