Antique Koehler Beer Bottle Opener

Antique bottle openers from Koehler's, Wayne Brewery and W. E. McClelland courtesy of B. Chambers.

If you love local local history and collect memorabilia from Erie, Pennsylvania businesses, you may recognize these antique bottle openers. First we have an old Koehler Beer opener in the upper left-hand corner. This was used before the new twist off caps were designed for glass bottles.The Wayne Brew bottle opener looks an awful lot like a shoe horn. The final opener, complete with a corkscrew to open a bottle of wine, was given to customers who bought a new Oldsmobile at the W. E. McClelland dealership in Erie. William McClelland worked as a salesman for his friend Jake Roth in the forties, then ran his own company. 

After awhile, these items were delegated to the junk drawer in the kitchen. You know the one, with mismatched buttons, old shoe laces, an ice pick, a nutcracker, the tool for digging walnuts out of the shell, wheat pennies, the owner's manual for the oven, clicky pens that stopped writing twenty years ago, match books advertising restaurants, playing cards, mismatched dice, Monopoly pieces and every other trinket that was considered too valuable to throw away.

The Erie County Historical Society and BrewErie presented a night of local beer history on March 12, 2014. The sold-out event featured a special BrewErie pint of pre-prohibition era formula Koehler Beer, exceptional Erie brewing archival images and collections from the ECHS holdings! 

Click here to see the old Koehler Clock on State Street. and here for a Wayne Brewing Company ad.

Find more facts about Erie at Old Time Erie

Erie Haunted History Tour 2013

If you were on the hunt for haunted Eerie history, you missed this one, which took place October 25th, 2013. You could have grabbed your ghoul, if you dared...the Erie Haunted History Tour took people on a ghastly walk through Downtown Erie for a night of fright and delight. A ticket to this family friendly event included admission to the walking tour and a Halloween-themed planetarium show on the grounds of the Watson-Curtze Mansion at 356 West 6th St. Re-enactors appeared throughout Erie's downtown, telling ghost stories and eerily acting out scenes from the past. The event took place October 25th and 26th, 2013

Historic Carriage Rides through Downtown Erie were held October 25th and 26th, 2013. Guides treated customers to stories of local legends and lore. The rides began and ended at Brewerie, 123 West 14th St. A behind the scenes tour of the spooky Union Station were held at the end of the carriage ride. As an added bonus, a ticket for the Historic Carriage Ride also admitted people to the Erie Haunted History Tour.

Enjoy more fun historic facts and photos of Erie, Pennsylvania at: Old Time Erie