What it's like to work inside the Hood Milk Bottle

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Nestled between dazzling skyscrapers of Seaport Boulevard and the brick buildings of Congress Street sits a structure quite unlike the others around it: The Hood Milk Bottle.

If you’re in the area, you can’t miss it. The iconic red-and-white bottle has stood on the boardwalk outside of the Boston Children’s Museum in Fort Point for decades. When I visited the museum as a child, I never really questioned how it got there. (Between that and the “Got Milk?” advertisements on the air, I figured it was just another facet of the “you need milk for strong bones” spiel adults were always giving kids.) In fact, it wasn’t until recently that I learned the Hood Milk Bottle’s history doesn’t start with Hood.

So last month, I paid a visit to the 40-foot bottle, and even got a chance to see what it’s like to work inside the 90-year-old structure.

A brief history

While the dairy company H.P. Hood does have its roots in Massachusetts (as evidenced by the old factory’s brick smokestacks in Charlestown), the bottle was actually built in 1934 by Arthur Gagner, an independent ice cream proprietor in Taunton.

During the 1930s, Gagner served up homemade ice cream out of the bottle’s windows to drive-thru customers on Route 44. Originally made from pine, the structure is an example of Coney Island-style architecture (also called roadside pop architecture) that was meant to attract and enchant would-be customers driving by on the highway.

Gagner’s Ice Cream was one of the first drive-thru restaurants in the United States. But after a change of hands and decades of economic strain following World War II, the bottle began to fall into disrepair. By 1967, the structure was abandoned where it stood in Taunton.

Ten years later in 1977, Hood stepped in to rescue the bottle from being lost to time. The company refurbished the structure in Quincy, then set it on a barge and sailed it through Boston Harbor to the Boston Children’s Museum before moving the 15,000-pound (and 58,620-gallon) bottle by crane to Children’s Wharf at 308 Congress St.

Present day

Today, the milk bottle is a bustling summertime concession stand serving up Richie’s slush, Hood soft serve ice cream, pizza and hot dogs. But it wasn’t always like that. The milk bottle’s concession operators have changed over the years, closing intermittently when vendors would move in or out.

It was during one of these inoperative periods about five years ago that Glenn Vetrano, a native of Everett with three decades of ice cream and concession-selling experience under his belt, began to notice the shuttered bottle. “I was working in the Financial District and I’d walk by every day and think, ‘who’s running that?’” Vetrano told me. “Finally one day, I just walked into the Children’s Museum and asked if I could speak to someone about it.”

Vetrano and his wife, Kathy Vetrano, are now the proud operators of Glenn’s Kreme & Kone at the Milk Bottle, a satellite location of their family ice cream shop in Windham, New Hampshire. Vetrano received clearance to run concessions at the bottle in 2020, around the same time Hood completed a number of renovations to the bottle. With new windows, awnings and an updated HVAC system, the milk bottle finally opened for business in 2021, serving ice cream just as it did 90 years ago.

Inside the bottle

Vetrano raves about the view from inside the window — the harbor, the people watching, the glimmering Seaport buildings. I just had to check out what it was like inside. Lucky for me, the Vetranos were kind enough to let me share a shift with them one Sunday in July, during which I got to pipe cones and talk to a few customers.

“We visit the Children’s Museum most weekends,” Patrick Campbell, a local patron, told me as he held his toddler. “And we always get a hot dog and ice cream here afterwards.”

The inside of the bottle is roomier than you’d expect. The Vetranos were able to smoothly navigate around whether they were at the register, making sundaes or boxing up hot dogs (even with an extra person in their workspace). All the shelving units and prep tables are custom built for the curved, round interior. And while it does have a hand-washing station, there’s no space for a restroom. (Another reason why being in close proximity to the museum is pretty handy.)

Continuing the tradition of serving ice cream at the milk bottle is a source of pride for Vetrano. But his favorite part of a summer’s day at the concession stand is the visitors. “We love the people, we love the action, and we love being in the community,” said Vetrano. “It’s just a great spot.”

P.S. — The Hood Milk Bottle isn’t the only gigantic milk bottle in the state of Massachusetts. There’s a nearly identical one in Raynham, just four miles away from where Gagner’s Ice Cream once stood. There’s also another one jutting out of G&S Pizza in New Bedford.

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