B&M Catering visits the Hood Milk Bottle in Boston. Learns some interesting facts about this iconic Boston structure.

tfl at boston milk bottle

Recently, on a brisk New England winter afternoon, The Fresh Lobster and friends visited the historic Hood Milk Bottle at the Boston Children’s Museum.  This structure, located at 300 Congress Street, is 40 feet tall and 18 feet in diameter.  If it were an actual milk bottle, it would hold about 58,000 gallons of milk!

When the weather is nice, the milk bottle is actually an ice cream stand and snack bar.  We thought we would check out the history behind this Boston landmark building.

The bottle was originally built by Arthur Gagner in 1933 and located on Winthrop Street (Rte. 44) in Taunton, MA. He built the structure as an ice cream stand beside his store. The bottle was one of the first fast-food drive-in restaurants in the US.  Mr. Gagner sold the bottle to the Sankey family in the early 1940s.  Eventually, the structure was abandoned.  It lay empty for ten years until H.P. Hood and Sons bought it with the intention to give it to the Boston Children’s Museum.   It has been situated here since April of 1977 when the Hood Company had the bottle shipped to Boston by ferry.  They called this event the “Great Bottle Sail”.  

The bottle has recently undergone extensive renovations.  The original top half was removed and put into storage.  Then, the base was moved slightly to be rebuilt on the new Hood Milk Bottle Plaza. In November 2006, the bottle was “recapped’. The renovated bottle was officially re-dedicated by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in April, 2007, exactly 30 years to the day that it had been moved to Children’s Wharf.

It’s fascinating to think about how long this building has been around, the journey it took, and how many families get to enjoy it even today.  As always, we are proud of our local history, and are happy to have our own legacy of providing clambakes, barbecues, pig roasts and more to families all across New England.

Be sure to contact Tim in our office to ask them about planning your next event.