Newark, New Jersey -
Beer Bottle Water Tower - Gone

Beer Bottle Water Tower

Alas, it is no longer there. Though it took more effort to remove than expected (a testament to construction of yore), it has been gone for at least a year. Rumor has it that someone took the pieces with the intention of restoration. I certainly hope so, but it won't be the same unless they return it to the side of the Parkway (I remember both "labels" but I prefer Pabst.). For now, I'll have to make due with the giant Ronsol lighter cartridge a bit further south. [Allie, 09/13/2008]

Bottle Water Tower

My grandfather was the sign painter who did the big Hoffman Soda Bottle both as Hoffman and later as the beer bottle. We still have his brushes and the original pencil sketches for the art work! I hope it gets restored sometime. [Joe Sommese, 06/25/2008]

Big Beer Bottle Budges Grudgingly
What is perhaps the World's Largest Bottle -- 60 feet tall, with a capacity of 55,000 gallons -- is gradually being pried loose from its 100+-foot-tall tower in Newark, New Jersey. The bottle, a water tank originally built in 1930 to promote Hoffman Pale Dry Ginger Ale, was slated to be torn down in 2004, and again in 2005, but each time it proved more sturdy than the machinery sent to destroy it.... [06/20/2006] Complete News Story

Large Brown Bottle

I was travelling on the Garden State Parkway and spotted the big brown bottle water tower. I remember reading about this on Roadsideamerica.com, but the last report made me believe it would be gone long before I had a chance to see it. I like to photograph interesting water towers, anyway so I got off the turnpike for a better look. As you see, they have pretty much carved away the building all around the tower. I am not sure if they plan to keep it or not, but without a building for workers to use as a platform it seems it would be pretty difficult to dissassemble the thing. The end of a local icon..... [Richard Weiss, 09/19/2005]

Large Brown Bottle

Take a good look at the bottle while you can for it's days are numbered! A demolition crew has been taking down the Hoffman/Pabst plant for the last month, working around the three-story building that serves as the bottle's base. The plant site, I believe, is making way for a needed housing development. Articles in the Newark Star-Ledger indicate the bottle is in too bad a condition to be saved; some residents, linking the bottle to the neighborhood's decline, said they don't want it anyway. Visit and/or take pictures at a safe distance. I don't know how close the demolisher will let you get, and the neighborhood's on the rough side. [walter elliott, 07/29/2005]