Collinsville’s Catsup Bottle Held Water
The giant Brooks bottle was a factory water tank before volunteers repaired its steel shell and restored the label.
The giant catsup bottle beside Route 159 in Collinsville supplied water to the Brooks bottling plant. The tank was shaped and painted like the product being made below, with the Brooks label visible above the factory buildings.
A Tank with a Label
The G.S. Suppiger Company commissioned the tower in 1949. W.E. Caldwell Company of Louisville built it, using a 100-foot support structure beneath a bottle-shaped tank about 70 feet tall.
The tank could hold 100,000 gallons. The company’s president, Gerhart Suppiger, is credited with the choice of a bottle shape, complete with a long neck and cap.
The proportions were different from a bottle on a kitchen table, but the details made the intended resemblance unmistakable. The tower advertised the brand across a much wider area than a sign mounted on the factory wall could reach.
Restoring the Bottle
By the early 1990s, the plant property was changing hands and the tower needed extensive work. Demolition was a possibility. A local preservation group organized to save it, raising money for repairs and repainting.
The effort collected about $80,000 over two years. Workers removed deteriorated paint and repaired the structure before applying a new finish. To reproduce the old label accurately, the project used surviving Brooks bottles as references.
Restoration was completed in 1995. The water tower entered the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Its red body and blue label remain visible above Collinsville, with the steel legs exposed underneath. Up close, the supports make its original role as industrial equipment easy to recognize.
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Adapted from the Hidden Here story catalog. Explore the historical records behind this story.
