Bottling in The Hill Neighborhood / St. Louis. Missouri

[bottle-bud]

There were two soda bottling companies on The Hill in St. Louis that I know of, and this story is about the one that was located on Cooper Street, actually three company names at different times at the same location. They are Fairmont Bottling Company, Sweet Sixteen Beverage Company and Rummy Bottling Company. The other company by the way was the Blue Ridge Bottling. Blue Ridge was one of the larger bottling operations in St. Louis and lasted from 1915 to 1982 (67 years). Another story another time.

So, what is the “The Hill Neighborhood”?

Here is a good description that I snipped off the web.

Really truly is a nice area in town, been there lots of time, dined in the nice restaurants and even had a beer or two or three etc.

Back to soda bottling, a few years back I posted a quick story on Fairmont Bottling Company, hopefully newer, better photographs of bottles and more research will provide a clearer story.

Fairmont Bottling Co. 1929-1940

Fairmont Bottling Company was founded in 1929 by a Vincent Triolo and Sylvester Riggio. The location was at 1820 Cooper Street. Around 1939 Cooper street will be renamed Marconi Street. Even though a Registration of Fictitious Name list Triolo and Riggio as each owning one-half of the business, the 1930 census has Triolo, (53 years old) listed as a proprietor of a soda factory and Riggio,(39 years old) is listed as a merchant in a soda factory. Both born in Italy, as expected.

I have three Fairmont bottles in my collection, two beautiful art deco bottles, an eight ounce and the twin quart size. Also, a less decorated quart bottle. Front and back photos of the bottle are shown, also pictured, not in my collection is an image of a seltzer bottle that shows a clearer view of the picture in the embossed bottles. I have no other memorabilia related to Fairmont.





In June of 1939 the bottling plant is put up for sale, one of the owners is ill, but I am not sure which owner it was, but I am guessing Triolo as he was the older of the two owners.

to be continued,

 

[bottle-bud]

Sweet Sixteen Beverage Co. 1941-1949

I find a Registration of Fictitious Name dated 1941 that has a Paul Noto listed as sole owner of the new bottling company. Here is the top portion of the document.

A 1941 ad confirms the location of Sweet Sixteen Beverage Co.

My source for city directories of St. Louis in the 1940’s is somewhat incomplete as many are only partial copies. A complete 1944 directory which did not have a Paul Noto listed, but did list a Sylvester Riggio as manager for a Sweet Bev Co., which I am to believe was the Sweet Sixteen Beverage Co.

I have two Sweet Sixteen Bottles in my collection, both fronts are identical, but the backs are different. The “First for Thirst” bottle is dated 1941 and the other bottle is dated 1946.

 

[bottle-bud]

Rummy Bottling Co. 1952

Once again, a Registration of Fictitious Name tells me where Rummy Bottling Company was located and who were the owners in 1952. Here is a copy of the top portion of the document.

John Triolo is the son of Vincent Triolo. John in 1952 was 48 years old. I did not research Nikola Jakovac, Louis Jakovac and Sam Antinora.

The Wonder Beverages bottle I have has a date of 1952, the same date as the above document, and as you can see on the backside it says Rummy Bottling Co. If it were not for finding this bottle, I would not have known of a Rummy Bottling Company in St. Louis. The Rummy bottle I have is dated 1963 and does name a bottler anywhere on the bottle. So, it could have been bottled anywhere.



Rummy was a product of the Wonder Orange Company of Chicago, Illinois Here is a copy of a 1949 Trade Ad and shows what the Rummy bottle would probably have looked like in 1952.

I could not dig up much information on Rummy Bottling Company, perhaps they were in business only for a short time. I did find however that in 1956 the building and its contents were put up for auction.

 

[Cola-Coca]

Wow great bottles, very interesting, great post!

 

[hemihampton]

Interesting. The Sweet Sixteen was also Popular in the Detroit Area & made in Detroit area. LEON.