Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from WBUR’s Saturday morning newsletter, The Weekender. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
Nestled between the dazzling skyscrapers of Seaport Boulevard and the brick buildings of Congress Street stands a building unlike any other in its vicinity: the Hood Milk Bottle.
If you are in the area, you can’t miss it. The iconic red and white bottle has stood on the boardwalk in front of the Boston Children’s Museum at Fort Point for decades. When I visited the museum as a child, I never really wondered how it got there. (Given the “Got Milk?” commercials on TV, I thought it was just another facet of the “you need milk for strong bones” talk that adults always feed to kids.) In fact, I only recently learned that the story of the Hood milk bottle doesn’t begin with Hood.
So last month I paid a visit to the 40-foot bottle and even had the chance to see what it’s like to work inside this 90-year-old structure.
A short history
While the HP Hood dairy company has its roots in Massachusetts (as evidenced by the brick chimneys of the old Charlestown factory), the bottle was actually designed in 1934 by Arthur Gagner, an independent ice cream owner in Taunton.
In the 1930s, Gagner served homemade ice cream from bottle windows to drive-in customers on Route 44. Originally constructed of pine, the building is an example of Coney Island style architecture (also called Roadside Pop architecture), designed to attract and enchant potential customers driving by on the highway.
Gagner’s Ice Cream was one of the first drive-in restaurants in the United States. But after a change of ownership and decades of economic difficulties following World War II, the bottle began to deteriorate. In 1967, the building at its Taunton location was abandoned.
Ten years later, in 1977, Hood stepped in to save the bottle from loss. The company renovated the structure in Quincy and then put it on a ship. and sailed it through Boston Harbor to the Boston Children’s Museum before the 15,000-pound (and 58,620 gallon) bottle was craned to Children’s Wharf at 308 Congress St.
Present day
Today, the Milk Bottle is a busy summertime food stand selling Richie’s Slush, Hood soft serve, pizza and hot dogs. But it wasn’t always this way. The Milk Bottle’s owners have changed over the years and it closes periodically as vendors move in or out.
It was during one of those downtimes about five years ago that Glenn Vetrano, an Everetter native with 30 years of experience in ice cream and snack sales, noticed the closed bottle. “I worked in the financial district and walked by every day and thought, ‘Who runs this?'” Vetrano told me. “Finally, one day I just went to the Children’s Museum and asked if I could talk to someone about it.”
Vetrano and his wife, Kathy Vetrano, are now the proud operators of Glenn’s Kreme & Kone at the Milk Bottle, a branch of their family ice cream shop in Windham, New Hampshire. Vetrano received approval to operate concessions at the Bottle in 2020, around the same time Hood completed a series of renovations to the Bottle. With new windows, awnings, and an upgraded HVAC system, the Milk Bottle finally opened in 2021, serving ice cream like it did 90 years ago.
Inside the bottle
Vetrano raves about the view from the window – the harbor, the people watching, the shimmering buildings of the harbor. I had to see what it was like inside. Luckily, the Vetranos were kind enough to let me share a shift with them one Sunday in July, during which I was able to blow cones and talk to a few customers.
“We visit the Children’s Museum most weekends,” Patrick Campbell, a local visitor, told me while holding his toddler. “And afterward, we always stop here for a hot dog and ice cream.”
Boston travel guide: Discover your Boston – and rediscover it. (/Key Figures)
The inside of the bottle is more spacious than you’d expect. The veterans had no problem navigating it whether they were manning the cash register, making sundaes, or packaging hot dogs (even with an extra person at their station). All of the shelving and prep tables are custom built to fit the curved, circular interior. And while there’s a handwashing station, there’s no room for a restroom. (Another reason its proximity to the museum is pretty convenient.)
Vetrano is proud to continue the tradition of serving ice cream from a milk bottle. But what he enjoys most about being at the concession stand on a summer day is the visitors. “We love the people, we love what’s happening and we love being part of the community,” Vetrano said. “It’s just a great place.”
PS: The Hood Milk Bottle isn’t the only giant milk bottle in the state of Massachusetts. There’s a nearly identical one in Raynham, just four miles from where Gagner’s Ice Cream once stood. Another also protrudes from G&S Pizza in New Bedford.
Sign up for the WBUR Weekender
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
