05/15/2026
This 1906 photo depicts the construction of the famous Tom Kelly bottle house at Rhyolite, Nevada. The house still stands today.
In Nevada, where wood is scarce and expensive, miners often built their houses with whatever was cheap and readily available. In many cases, glass bottles fit the bill. The bottles would be used like bricks and mortared in with adobe. Bottle houses are great in hot climates because they are cool in the summer, hold heat in the winter, and allow for natural light. This bottle house was built in 1906 by Tom Kelly, an Australian-born stonemason turned gold miner, using over 50,000 bottles. Kelly paid local children 10 cents for a wheelbarrow full of bottles - about $3 in 2021.
The building cost about $2,500, with most of the money going for wood trim and fixtures.
Instead of living in the house, Kelly decided to auction it off. He sold 400 tickets at $5 apiece, losing about $500 on the deal. The raffle was won by the Bennett family who lived in the house from 1906 to 1914. In 1907, The Bennetts hired Dave Kinney, a ship-wright by trade, to build the porch roof and add the false chimney and gingerbread trim.
