Brooks Catsup Bottle

Brooks Catsup Bottle. . , Collinsville, Illinois is home to the World's Largest Catsup Bottle, located at 800 South Morrison Avenue., The giant bottle is 70 feet tall and 25 feet wide, perched atop 100-foot-tall steel legs. , The Brooks Catsup Bottle was built in 1949 and served as a functional water tower, holding 100,000 gallons of water for the Brooks Old Original Catsup Plant. Today the Catsup Bottle is an iconic piece of Americana and a popular roadside attraction. Collinsville is very proud of this landmark and iterations of the bottle can be found throughout the City in murals, logos, souvenirs, and of course, this sculpture., History , In 1891 a group of Collinsville businessmen raised $5,000 and created the Collinsville Canning and Packing Co. , The plant went through several ownerships until 1907 when the Brooks brothers, Everett and Elgin, took over. They operated under the name of Triumph Catsup and Pickle Company, but soon changed it to Brooks Tomato Products Company. Despite a sale in 1920 to the American Cone and Pretzel Company and again in 1933 to the G.S. Suppiger Company, the Brooks brand name was retained by each subsequent owner., The catsup factory had great success, and produced much more than catsup, including chili beans, spaghetti, hominy, soups, and other sauces., The "Brooks Tabasco Flavor Catsup," as it was named, was extremely popular. So much so that the McIlhenny Tabasco Company threatened a lawsuit claiming the term "tabasco" was their copyrighted property., To avoid a legal battle, the G.S. Suppiger Co. changed the name to "Brooks Old Original Tangy Catsup.", The name change did not hurt sales, however, as Brooks Old Original Tangy Catsup landed the title of America's #1 seller among tangy catsups and, in the greater St. Louis area, it outsold all other brands combined by 2 to 1., By 1947, the G.S. Suppiger Co. needed a water tower on site to support manufacturing demands and contracted W.E. Caldwell Co. out of Louisville, KY to design the iconic tower. Two years later it was completed. , The Catsup Bottle was in peril of demolition in 1995 but was preserved and restored by the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group. , The Catsup Bottle is now on the National Register of Historic Places and the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame. , Today you can still buy Brooks Rich and Tangy Catsup at local grocery retailers, although it is now spelled ketchup and looks a little different from the World's Largest Catsup Bottle. , You can also buy Catsup Bottle themed merchandise at several local small businesses in Uptown Collinsville.