Vine City Dairy

Westfield, New York

In modern day, whenever we want to get milk we travel to the supermarket to get a carton of our favorite type of milk.  In the past, however, people received milk through a different method .. thanks to the friendly milkman who delivered milk right to our homes.

Customers would place their orders with the milkman and fresh milk was delivered to their doorsteps the next day. Some homes had insulated boxes placed on their porches while some homes cubbies or milk boxes that were built into the side of the house.  In fact, some older homes still have their nostalgic milk boxes to this day!  My childhood home had the milk box mounted to the side of the house by a back door leading into the garage. The milkman would place fresh bottles of milk into the milk boxes and the take the empty bottles. After the automobile came on the scene, milk trucks delivered the fresh milk to homes across the country.  Eventually, glass milk bottles were replaced by wax paper coated cartons.  By the 1950s, almost all milk in the United States was packaged in square cartons.

A Galvanized and Insulated Milk Box

Today, doorstep mile delivery is no longer commonplace.  According to USDA, in the 1950s, more than half of consumer milk sales came from home delivery services.  

Remember the days when mornings were associated with the clinking of glass bottles as the friendly milkman set them down in the milk box?  Our milkman was Lester Johnson who worked for the Vine City Dairy.  He always wore a white hat, white shirt, black bow-tie, jacket with the Vine City insigna, white pants, black shoes and a warm smile for all his happy customers. 

The invention of glass milk bottles changed the dairy delivery scene.  In 1878, the first glass milk bottle was patented.  It was called the Lester Milk Jar.  Milk was sold in glass bottles for the first time a year later, in 1879.  

Henry D.. Thatcher invented a different glass milk bottle design in 1884.  He was the first to include advertising cardboard cap.  Soon, more dairies began to create their own versions and by the 1920s designs and advertisements were etched onto the glass bottles.