Circa 2016
But up in Simi Valley, there's a place made nearly entirely of bottles...
Circa 2016
...an entire campus constructed of soda bottles: Chlorox bottles, blue bottles, green bottles, brown bottles, and various ephemera...
Circa 2016
...all held together with mortar.
Circa 2016
I've now had a couple of rare opportunities to visit...
Circa 2016
...though its public tours and open houses are few and far between.
Circa 2016
There's the sense that it may not be long for this world—and you've got to experience it now, before it disappears completely.
Circa 2011
During my first visit in 2011, you could actually go inside of the buildings.
Circa 2011
But they sustained a lot of damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake...
Circa 2011
...before which everything was intact.
Circa 2011
Now, however, entering most of the buildings—the schoolhouse, the shell house, the pencil house—is verboten.
Circa 2016
There are really only two structures that have close to their original four walls. The rest have been reduced down to facades...
Circa 2016
...or never had any walls at all.
Circa 2016
And you've not only got to step around the broken shards of glass underfoot...
Circa 2011
...but you've also got to wear soft-soled shoes to make sure you don't break any of the bottles further.
Circa 2011
Circa 2011
Circa 2011
Circa 2011
But once people knew that she collected something specific—say, baby doll heads...
Circa 2016
...they'd start bringing those with them to gift to her.
Circa 2016
After all, from the beginning, Bottle Village was always a tourist attraction.
Circa 2011
Circa 2011
Circa 2016
A lot of people—even in the neighborhood—know Bottle Village is almost never open, so they clamor to get in if they see the gate open.
Circa 2016
But, of course, the more we visit it, the more our footsteps take a little something away from it.
Related post:
Photo Essay: Bottle Tree Ranch
Photo Essay: Low Tide at Dead Horse Bay
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