Help with PA Milk Bottles

[deldig]

I recently dug two PA milk bottles and was hoping someone could help me out with rarity. They are both embossed in a slug plate

The first is marked ST LAWRENCE / ANTIETAM DAIRIES / ESTERLY, PA

The second is a PEIFER milk bottle from Reading. I don't remember the initials and my buddy has it to clean.

Thank you.

 

[DK03]

Hey Alan,

The rarities I will give you are based on my family's decades of experience digging in the Reading/St. Lawrence area.

The St. Lawrence one that you found I would consider to be fairly rare. We have only found one whole example and a couple of pieces here and there.

The initials for the Peifer are H. L. There are several different Peifer milk bottles, but I would say each one would be labeled as uncommon.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[deldig]

Thank you for that information. It seems that the Esterly bottle is from a town near Reading that no longer exists, but I can't find any info of the dairy itself.

 

[DK03]

Well, Esterly was the previous name of what is now known as St. Lawrence Borough. St. Lawrence was incorporated in 1927, so it is more than likely that the bottle you found was made before then.

As for a history of the St. Lawrence Dairy, it was started in 1888 by Albert H. Adams. He built a small bottling plant in St. Lawrence (Esterly) in 1913, enlarged the plant in 1915, and then built an even larger bottling plant on South Ninth Street in Reading that was completed in 1921. The St. Lawrence Dairy operated until 1958, when it merged with the Keystone Dairy.

As for why the bottle has Antietam on it, I always just assumed that Adams owned two dairy farms at the time, one in St. Lawrence and the other at a site that at the time was called Antietam (most likely just north of St. Lawrence). (Today, the Antietam School District encompasses an area near St. Lawrence, but it itself is not a city, township, or borough.)

I have been trying to find information on the Peifer's Dairy for a couple of years now without much success. Sorry I can't help you out with this one.

Either way, those are two nice milk bottles you guys found. I'd love to see some pictures of them if you get a chance.

 

[deldig]

Thank you. This is very helpful and I will try and get pictures up. We will probably sell the bottles, since it is nothing my digging partners collect.