bottle church and house

mistressotdark

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here's something to learn:

The late Bob Cain was the proud builder of a series of glass bottle structures located on his farm just north of town. In 2007 a committee has moved these structures into Treherne to the corner park at Railway Avenue and Alexander Street. It's been over 20 years now since the whole adventure began, but tourists are still coming from far and wide to see the amazing attraction.


Bob Cain and his wife Dora built their first structure, a one room house made of approximately 4000 glass bottles, in 1982 with the help of Fred Harp. The couple got the idea after seeing similar creations in Redlake, Ontario. It took them nearly three years, beginning in 1979, to collect enough bottles to begin construction, but with Dora cleaning and pealing labels, the men were soon at work. After two months of dedicated labor, the first glass house was complete. Inside this house, collections of antiques and foreign bottles were displayed. Soon after, in 1983, the trio decided to build a church using approximately 5000 bottles. This structure took nearly 3 months to build, but when it was complete, they were able to furnish it properly. Bob made a pulpit, an organ was donated from the Anglican church in McGregor, a few stained glass windows were donated from the Anglican Church in Cypress River, and from a house in Winnipeg, Bob found some old church pews that he cut in half and added to his collection. In the years to follow, three weddings took place in this church, along with numerous services from time to time. Bob and Dora watched as the tourists began to pour in, and after receiving over 7000 visitors in one summer, they figured it was time to build a few final additions: a wishing well, and a fully functioning outdoor washroom. So in 1987, they put up a well using approximately 500 bottles and a bathroom using over 1000 bottles. Bob and Dora's son, Joe Cain, was a plumber, so he was able to install a flushing toilet and sink with running water. The facilities were appreciated by their visitors!

now for some photos...
and no..I didn't check the bathroom.lol should've











 

goldenkitty45

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WOW - absolutely amazing! I'd love to visit that church. Its so cool and inspiring
What city/town/state is this in????
 

carolpetunia

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Fascinating! And beautifully shot, too. It makes me think of a place in Canada where someone built some structures out of beautiful old glass insulators, the kind that used to be on telephone poles (before they switched to porcelain). I saw some photographs of that place years ago, when I was active in an insulator-collecting organization, but I can't find anything about it online now, darn it.

Nice work!
 
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mistressotdark

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

WOW - absolutely amazing! I'd love to visit that church. Its so cool and inspiring
What city/town/state is this in????
drive straight up to manitoba....then...
find treherne manitoba...
you can look it up on google..

here's the directions from winnipeg:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&saddr....5&ie=UTF8&z=9
 
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