Frates Milk Bottle Building – New Bedford Mass

This is an excerpt of the piece I wrote for the National Trust for Historic Preservation on the programmatic dairy architecture that dots the southcoast of Massachusetts. You can read the entire piece here:

[Retro Roadmap] Milk Bottle Buildings of Southeastern Massachusetts - PreservationNation.org

The Frates Dairy company was based in New Bedford, Mass., and is known for having built three buildings shaped like milk bottles. Two of the three have survived. This one is in New Bedford and has been the home of G&S Pizza for the past 25 years.

It’s not often you see a 52-foot-tall milk bottle bursting out of a pizza shop -- unless you’re driving down New Bedford's Acushnet Avenue.

Originally an ice cream stand -- then a restaurant -- built and operated by Frates Dairy, this bottle-shaped building was constructed by steaming wood and warping it to create the shape of a milk bottle. Once constructed, the bottle was then topped with a red bottle cap. The sides of the bottle were painted to resemble milk -- as it was delivered to homes during that time -- with the bright white milk being topped with a layer of off-white cream.

This location was a Frates Restaurant until 2003 when it was purchased by a local couple who continued it as an ice cream stand, only to put it up for sale again in 2005.

G&S Pizza purchased the property at that time and still sells local Bliss Dairy Ice Cream in the warmer months as a nod to the historic landmark bottle.

The other Frates Milk Bottle is in Raynham MA - we've covered it here but here's a photo to inspire you to check it out yourself!