A Peculiar House.

Southland Times, Issue 19232, 19 December 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Peculiar House.

A house made of beer bottles ifl one of several startling architectural novelties in Tonopuh, Nevada. Among thp others are houses mn<le of straw, of tin from five gallon oil cans, of drygoods and biscuit box lumber, of mud, stone, tents, and cloth. The reason for this notable and original variety of building material is simple. Tonopah i 3 in a region barren of trees. In consequence the commonest lumber sells for £lii a thousand feet, while an inferior grade of scrub cedar for fuel costs £1 10s a oord. Tonopah is a young mining camp, and its riches are still mostly underground. Therefore the need for economy, and hence the origin of the bottle house. It was made by a miner who went there in July, when houses are not strictly necessary. Being unable to buy lumber, and empty beer bottles being available in astonishing numbers, he chose and went to work at odd times. In three months his house was finished, and the chief expense was for water with which to mix his mud and plaster. Water costs Gs a barrel in Tonopah in summer. Ten thousand beer bottles are incorporated in this neat little house, which is 16 feet by 20 feet in the clem-, with ceilings eight feet high, and coil' toms two rooms. That the miner had nn eye to artistic effect as well as to warmth and convenience is shown by the neatness of the workmanship and also his adherence to a color scheme. The northern and western exposures are composed of bottles of n light green hue, while the other sides are ai most black. The inside walls are plastered with lime, which is spread to a depth suflJ cient to cover the bottle necks. Brittle nails should be rubbed nightly with a little cold cream, vaseline, or sweet otl, : which will keep them from breaking. If gloves are worn at night, the tips of the gbvfl fingers should be cut off, or this practice vfill j tend to mafe (be nails brittle.