How many beer bottles does it take to build a house?
That’s a good question and you should be able to find the answer when you visit the Tom Kelly Bottle House in Nevada. But the answer varies. According to two sources, it’s between 30,000 to 50,000 bottles. The bulk of those are unwashed beer bottles but if you look closely, you may find whiskey, soda and a few medicine bottles as well.
In 1906, Tom Kelly, began to construct his bottle house from discarded bottles he collected from local saloons in the town of Rhyolite, located along the eastern edge of Death Valley. The now defunct ghost town was booming and lumber was in short supply.
It took this 76-year old miner six months to complete this home, which I think is safe to say is the ultimate “upcycle” project.
The prosperity of this gold rush town didn’t last and when the gold dried up, so did the town. The home was abandoned sometime between 1912- 1914.
The home sat empty until around 1925 when it was restored and reroofed by Paramount Pictures to be used as a setting for the silent film, The Air Mail, an action movie starring Warner Baxter, Billie Dove, Mary Brian and Douglas Fairbanks.
This historical site was then maintained as a museum with various inhabitants until 1956.
Today there is a locked fence that surrounds the property. Visitors are able to get a closer look only when the gate is open and the caretaker is on property. No one is permitted inside the structure.
I didn’t happen to visit when the gate was unlocked, but I did find this short video that offers a closer look, including the interior, of this roadside attraction.
You’ll find the Bottle House just off Hwy 374 within the Rhyolite Ghost Town, the largest in Death Valley National Park.
Do you enjoy roadside attractions? Here are a few others:
Monument of the States Roadside Attraction in Kissimmee
Florida Roadside Attraction: The World’s Largest Basket
USS George Bancroft Roadside Attraction
© 2014 – 2016, Tonya Prater. All rights reserved.
Maria Alexandra @LatinAbroad says
this is really cool! Never thought I would find such an attraction in DEATH Valley 😉
-Maria Alexandra
Nancie says
That could have been more of a challenge to build if he had personally emptied the bottles first! 🙂
I’m sure he must have been quite the character.
Tonya says
Your comment cracked me up, Nancie! Yes, building a house while emptying the bottles could have proved very challenging. 🙂
Leigh says
Looks like a very interesting spot. That takes some dedication to build! I wonder how long it took to find all those beer bottles. How did you find out about the place?
Tonya says
I saw the Bottle House on RoadsideAmerica.com. It’s my favorite place to find fun, quirky attractions.
Jackie Smith says
I love these far-out places you find for us! This one is still making me smile. Great job!
Tonya says
You know you can count on me to find those off the wall attractions! 🙂
Jacquie says
Hey – my G+ guess was spot on! This is so cool and I’ll be it catches the sunlight beautifully. You find the neatest things Tonya! I’m sending this to my brother in law who has a nice piece of land and a friends who would help him 🙂
Tonya says
And here I thought you’d already read the post, Jacquie! You’re right, your guess was spot on! I’m thinking this would be a very affordable option to build a home, unless of course you need to drink all that beer on your own. Then I’m not too sure. 🙂
susan says
WOW that is a lot of beer bottles, I am impressed!
Stephanie @ CrayonMarks&TigerStripes says
That is pretty impressive!
Liz @ A Nut in a Nutshell says
I love that it was built out of necessity, not as a novelty. That makes it all the more interesting.
Sarah @Must Have Mom says
How cool is that? I’ve never seen such a thing!
robyn says
Wow! What a really cool attraction. I bet it is beautiful when the sun reflects off the glass.
trisha says
That is pretty darn hilarious. I could do this with coke bottles!
Mary {The World Is A Book} says
That is cool and an awesome pit stop! We’re hoping to make it back to Death Valley this year and I’l be sure to stop by here. That is one dedicated beer lover.
cindy says
now that is dedication! what an interesting site to see! I wonder what the temperature was inside…
Janis Brett Elspas says
Love this house. Believe it or not I’ve been there and this is definitely an amazing way to recycle bottles! The guy who built this was before his time, for sure.
Mel {MamaBuzz} says
That is unbelievable! I wonder how the house felt and looked from the inside. Was it cooler? Really interesting! Love seeing things like this when we’re on the road.
Michelle says
That is so cool! I love when people reuse items to build things I would never even start to think of.
Lisa says
That is so awesome!
Ellen Christian says
wow that is really neat. I would totally visit that!
Natalie @ One busy WAHM says
Oh boy – I have to hide this from my hubby. He would totally take that as a challenge to drink up and make his own! 🙂
Wendy says
We have a local house here in Connectict that has a courtyard walls made with bottles. It’s a really neat house! PS_ I LOVE Ghost Towns!~
Jess @UsedYorkCity says
This is seriously amazing! I love little roadside attractions, the quirkier, the better! All the hangovers that must have gone into making this house…
Tonya says
lol- I can only imagine. Maybe that’s why the man who built it never lived in the home. He may have relived those painful memories every time he looked at it. 😉
Billie @ Rowell Reviews says
That is really neat. Do you think husbands told their wives they would be out late drinking so they could help him build his house?
Tonya says
I’m not sure, but I’m thinking there wouldn’t have been many wives in the saloon town. Probably a bunch of bored bachelors with lots of time on their hands.
Cat Davis says
Wow, that’s insane! I need to find stuff like this for our Colorado road trip this August.
Tonya says
I’m a fan of http://www.roadsideamerica.com. They also have an app for the iPhone which makes it pretty easy to find unique attractions like this on the road. I use it every time we travel.
Jennifer @TheRebelChick says
That is pretty dang cool! I think that might be the most interesting house I’ve ever seen!
Marcia says
Mr. Kelly was way before his time. What a great way to re-purpose old bottles.
Wonder if he had a family…
Pepper says
Awe I was hoping that you could see the bottles on the inside too, wouldn’t it have been amazing to see the light through them, but then you probably would have cooked to death LOL.
Michele {Malaysian Meanders} says
There’s a bottle house in Houston, too, that I’ve been meaning to visit. Perhaps this was just an excuse for Tom Kelly and his friends to drink a lot. “I’d love to stop, but we have a house to build!” would be they’re rallying cry. This looks like exactly the type of place you’d like. What did the kids think?
Tonya says
What did my kids think? That is truly the million dollar question isn’t it? I think they would have enjoyed it had we not spent the better part of 8 hours driving to and through Death Valley. A detour added over 2 hours on to our drive and it was not a fun one. 🙁
The bottle house was on my list of places to stop and we were really going right past it (it was 3 minutes off our route). They were not happy. Which must be why I only snapped one photo- clearly, I was rushed. Or ticked off. 🙂
[email protected] says
What an enterprising idea! I’m not so sure how warm it would have been in the winter!
Tonya says
Or how cool it would be in the hot desert summer!
Muza-chan says
Amazing! 🙂
budget jan says
Now that is a roadside attraction. Did he drink the contents of all the bottles?
Tonya says
No, he actually collected the bottles from local saloons but it’s probably safe to say he drank quite a bit as there was a water shortage. There were originally three homes in this Rhyolite. The Tom Kelly home is the only one that remains standing in the ghost town.