# Elk Bottling Co. / St. Louis, Missouri



## bottle-bud (Aug 7, 2018)

Elk Bottling Co. was bottling soda in St. Louis from approximately 1909 til 1950 or so.
My research tells me they were at the following locations;
1439 N. 8th (1909-1910)
1440 Blair (1911-1916)
1416 N. Garrison (1917-1920)
1620 N. Jefferson (1929-1946)

The oldest Elk in my collection is a 1923 quart, next to her is a 1929 quart and a not quite sure of date qt.


  

Around 1921 Elk was bottling Booz, this was advertised as a non-intoxicating beverage!
Universal Beverage Co. of St. Louis was the advertiser. Pictured is the Elk Version, an advertisement, an another Booz with no bottler mentioned and two newspaper clippings.
Universal Beverage declared bankruptcy in January of 1921, I guess Elk tried to revive the brand as in May of 1921 they were looking for a salesman.

    

A soda called Melo-Paya was bottled at the 1620 N. Jefferson address in 1939 the same time the building was the Elk Bottling Co.
I believe Melo-Paya to be a short lived soda as the bottles are somewhat rare and advertisements I could only find in 1939.



Naturally Elk Bottling Co. had their own brand of soda and in 1940 you could buy a case of Elk Soda in 12 oz. bottles for 39 cents.
Funny I don't have a 12 oz. in my collection.
Pictured are a 1945 7 oz., a 1946 7 oz. and 2 different versions of 10 oz. bottles dated 1947 & 1949.

    

Elk had several different flavors Root Beer & Grape shown below.




In 1940 Elk was bottling Mar-Bert in "Big 12 oz." bottles
I only have a copy of the newspaper ad, a bottle label soon to be delivered from an E-Bay auction, but no bottle!

 

From 1948 til 1952 the 1416 N. Jefferson address is also listed as The Grapette Bottling Co.



Grapette bottled the Clown brand of soda.
I have used up all the image space for this thread so I am unable to show a picture of the Clown bottle and caps.
The last newspaper ad  I found for Elk Soda was in 1950.


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## iggyworf (Aug 7, 2018)

Great research and memorabilia bottle-bud. Some beautiful bottles!


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