June 2005 Newsletter

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Upcoming Meeting - June 2 nd , 2005,

Doors Open 7:30 p.m., Meeting starts at 8:00 p.m.

Directions to the Town of Islip Recreation Center, Ronkonkoma Beach Pavilion at Lake Ronkonkoma off Rosevale Ave. (631) 467-3308

From the LIE: Exit 59, Ocean Ave North to Rosevale Ave. bear left to 1 st traffic light, turn right at light into park, left into parking lot, building is at the end on your right.

From Sunrise Highway: Exit 49 Lakeland (Sayville) continue north crossing Veterans Highway, merge w/Ocean Ave, continue north under LIE & follow the directions above.

And now few words from the President (or chief bottle nut notes)

First I want to thank everyone who made the May meeting, and also Kevin Kelly for his program on Bug Bottles.

Kevin's program was quite interesting, and I learned a good amount about the area of Bug Bottle collecting. The range of colors that Lyon's Powder bottles come in is limited to the rainbow. Seems than the proprietor of the company struck a deal with the glass houses of the day, and it went something like this. At the end of the day, there is many times a bit of glass left in the bottom of the pot. Instead of it going to waste, the glass houses would use it up making Lyon's Powder bottles. This benefited both the glass houses, and the Lyon's Powder Company. The glass houses reduced the waste and made a buck, and the Lyon's Powder Company was able to get a reduced price on the bottles, as any color glass could be used. Rather clever!

Also, it is surprising that any bottles remain today for us collectors, as the directions clearly state that the bottle should be thrown where you see the insects and vermin, breaking the glass, and spreading the powder around, to control the pests. Perhaps not everyone followed the directions?

On another note, I am sorry to tell all of you, but I will be unable to attend this months meeting on Thursday, June 2. Laura is active in the various PTA groups in our district, and they are having an end of year dinner that evening at Collin's & Main restaurant in downtown Sayville. She asked me if I would go with her, so how could I say no.

Also, at the May meeting, Kevin was asking if anyone would be interested in holding the clubs library collection. Kevin has had it for some time. If no one is interested I guess I would hold it, what the heck, I have the extra T-shirts, and a few remaining copies of the clubs bottle book. So what would be a box or two of bottle books (lots of late night reading!!!).

Now, I had the pleasure to visit John Feldman's home during the month. He was kind enough to purchase a bottle for me at auction, and I wanted to pick it up. After much drooling at the fantastic display of great glass John has, he told me that he has several glass cases, about 14 to 16 inches deep, 6 feet tall, and if I recall correctly, the same width. Came from a drug store some years back. John said they are free to anyone who would like them. Contact him for more information. If you ever wanted a glass showcase for your better bottles, this could be a very good chance, at a very good price!

Laura was hitting the yard sales last weekend, and low and behold, she found a great pyro Sayville milk for my collection! Very good shape, in red pyro, on the front is "South Side Dairy West Sayville Tel: 1024" and on the back is a picture of a woman, very 40's or 50's looking drinking a large glass of milk, and above the picture is the saying "Drink Milk for Beauty". Bottle dates from the 1950's is my best estimate. I was tickled pink with delight! Thank you hon!

Trying to get two programs for the fall, as I am looking to book something for October, and for November. Of course, December is the clubs Christmas Party. You wonder why I am thinking of Christmas already - our poinsettia stock plants are in the greenhouse!

As I will not be at the meeting in person, I want to wish all of you a safe and happy summer season! As the song goes, see you in September! Mark

Sayville's Dairies: When the Milkman Rang Twice

Part Two

Now, with the previous bottles, I did say I believe the location of some to be on Broadway Ave. Broadway Ave was the main street of dairy farms in the Sayville area. Some of the farms were very small, some large. Some seemed to be hard luck farms, changing hands every 5 or 10 years. As I noted, I only think they were on Broadway, it is not known to me for sure. It is also possible that they could have been on Johnson Ave. There was a concentration of agricultural activity on Johnson Ave. up to the turn of the 21 st century, when the last agricultural enterprise, a large greenhouse complex, Paul Schneeberg & Sons Roses, was sold for subdivision.

Now this brings us to "BARONS". Again, another bottle I do not have for my collection. I did see a piece in the local paper, dated 60 years ago, that noted dairy farmer Charles Baron died at his farm on Broadway Ave. If the paper is correct, this puts his passing at about 1945 (I say about as they can be off a year or two sometimes). According to research conducted by Mike Katsar, milk began to be bottled in 1930 at this farm. I believe the bottles to be embossed "BARONS/FARM DAIRY/SAYVILLE". I have never had the chance to examine one of these bottles, so I could be wrong on the embossing.

Now, another dairy farm that started out in the mid Twenties would grow to become the largest in Sayville, and one of the largest in the area. John Budenos began what would become the Broadway Dairy about 1926. As a young immigrant, he worked very hard and was able to purchase the farm which he would transform about 1925 or 1926. At the farms pinnacle, it stretched from Montauk Highway on the South border, North along the West side of Broadway Ave to a point some 500 feet South of the present Sunrise Highway, or about the rear of the flea market property. It extended west to a line 100 feet East of Seville Blvd. To give an idea, this is around 2/3 of a mile long, and 3/10 of a mile wide. Not bad! Today, a very large subdivision marks the area; roads such as Lowell, Wyandanch, Versa Place, Loop Drive, Budenos Dr and the Town of Islip Grange, Little League fields all mark the location today. Vandals burned down the barn around 1964 with a great loss of livestock and equipment. When John chose to sell the farm, the buyers gave him a brand new home in the subdivision as part of the deal. However, John died before the home was built. John Budenos has left behind many different bottles for the collector to search for. Research indicates the Broadway Dairy was closed in 1966.

A count on my shelves gives me 11 different bottles from John Budenos. And, this is not all the known variations! If one could obtain all the half pint, pint and quarts, store and deposit bottles you would have at least two dozen different bottles! There are pyros for both Broadway Dairy, and an off shoot operation, Dairy Rich Farms. Dairy Rich was run by John Budenos, as the phone number on the bottle is the same number given on Broadway Dairy bottles. John even invested the money into making a private mold for Broadway Dairy bottles; such was the scale of his farm! Of all the Sayville milk bottles, examples from Broadway Dairy are the most common.

Now, here is one for you. There is also a milk embossed "FRANK BUDENOS /SAYVILLE". Mikes research indicates he worked for only two years, 1948-50. I have no proof, other than the uncommon last name, that this is a relation to John Budenos. Could it have been his son, as some of the Broadway Dairy bottles are marked "John Budenos & Son"? Or another family member, a brother, uncle, or? This is another hard to find Sayville milk bottle that is unfortunately missing from my collection.

Now this brings up the next largest dairy in Sayville, Joseph Winters. His farm was started in the late 1920's. Located on Lincoln Ave. opposite the Lincoln Ave elementary school at the bend in the road, his home still stands today, with one of the smaller barns still behind it, serving as a large garage. I believe the home is still in the family today. Joseph Winters leaves behind a nice selection of bottles for the collector to look for. Both embossed and pyro examples are known. I currently have 4 examples from this farm. My embossed examples are marked "JOSEPH WINTERS /SAYVILLE AVE/DAIRY/SAYVILLE LI". The pyro examples are marked the same way in orange pyroglazing. He was the one of the last dairy's to close in Sayville, closing in 1966. Today a large subdivision marks the area.

Both the Budenos and Winters farms are vivid in my memory, as when I was young, my dad would take me to see the cows at both farms. When your 5 or 6, standing at the fence watching the cows is a great thing! The fields were still there from Winters Dairy when I was in Junior High (Middle School today). The best short cut home was to walk through them. This would save you a good 20 minites of walking. Tales were abundant of Mr. Winters giving kids the run off with a couple shots of salt from his shot gun.

This takes us to the post WWII era in Sayville. Here we find a milk delivery service run by a Henry Chapman. He lived on the east side of Broadway Ave, and delivered milk with his car. His home still stands today, on the south side of Juniper Hill greenhouses. I had the pleasure to meet a gentleman who grew up with the Chapman kids as playmates. He told me tales of Mrs. Chapman giving them all rides to school in the family car, which smelled of sour milk! The car was a maroon 39 Chevy. According to this fellow, Chapman did not have cows, he purchased his milk in bulk from others. I have a bottle marked in the letter plate "H. CHAPMAN/SAYVILLE NY" from his operation. According to the gentleman I met, it was a short lived business. The date for this dairy seems to be 1945-47. Research done by Mike Katsar gives one date of 1926 for this farm.

Next is a bottle in a red pyroglazing. It is from the "TIOGA DAIRY/BROADWAY AVE /SAYVILLE, LI" on the front, and on the back with TUBERCULIN/TESTED/BLOOD/TESTED/ (all in circle) CROWE AND MULLEN DIRECT FROM FARM TO YOU (picture of cows head in the center of the circle). Bottle is from the late 1940's or the early 1950's. I found this one at an antique show. It was in the vendors' booth, and I looked at it, and looked at it, and looked at it. The price was high for a milk bottle at the time, very high. I was used to paying 5 or 7 dollars for a milk bottle for my collection at the time, and this one was 40 bucks! Well, in the end I paid it, and I am glad I did, as I have not seen another for sale since. To my knowledge, this was one of the last dairy's to begin operation in Sayville, and as such is the last bottle. Mike Katsar indicates in his research that this farm was owned by an Evelan G. Mullen. Mike also notes that there was a Tioga Dairy in Bayport, which was owned by a John Mullen. Mike gives dates of 1930 to 1954 for the Tioga Dairy.

That's it for this issue - next issue (September) we will finish Mark's article on Sayville Dairies by covering West Sayville and I believe Oakdale. If you have any of the bottles listed or any other Sayville milk bottles in your collection and are looking to find them a loving home, please be sure to contact us. As you can see there are still some hard to fill holes in our collection that need filling! On the next page we shall show several additional photos of the bottles from this part of the article - all would not fit within the article. Well at least not without me losing what little sanity I have left. Also if you have any additional information on any of these Dairies please so not hesitate to contact us. Laura

Two more Budenos Bottles- left one with just John Budenos and on the right one with both John Budenos and Broadway Dairy embossing.

Below right another two - left a shoulder embossed J. Budenos & Sons (I believe this is the private mold one Mark mentioned of course while I work on this he is at work) and then a "normal" slug plated one with J. Budenos & Sons that has L.I. spelled out.

 

The two Dairy Rich Farm Bottles

To the far left we have the back side of the Winter's pryo bottle showing a cow with a milk bottle in front of it.

Next we have a pryo Budenos from Broadway Dairy not sure how well this will show up as it is in bad shape, being very faded. I know Mark would love a better example. Under the word Dairy it shows a circle with the words "Caps Off to Health" with a small child with a big cap on it's head. Very cute.