The Historic Bottle House West Texa

The downtown former (1920's) Historic "Bottling House" is all yours. Luxurious/spacious, fully renovated/modern 1,200 sq. ft. home w/ 2 bedrooms(4 beds)/1 bath. Central Air/Heat. Full Kitchen. Shaded Outdoor Dining/Stargazing/park & walk everywhere downtown

The "Bottle House" is located downtown Alpine, within walking distance of everything. The home is located across the street from the railroad tracks/Amtrak so there is train noise. I provide individually wrapped earplugs for sensitive sleepers, as does the Holland Hotel 1 block away (the "nicest" hotel in town:) The home is "all yours" - a spacious (1,200 square feet) with 2 private front entrances and 1 back door leading out to the back yard with an outdoor dining table/6 deck chairs for stargazing. It's a 3 bedroom (4 beds: 1 queen, 1 full, 2 twins) 1 bath with fully stocked kitchen (gas range/ full fridge/microwave/dishwasher/full laundry) As you enter the living room in front, there is a dining room table and chocolate leather sofa and chair and a day bed/sofa with 2 twin beds (one pulls out easily from beneath the top mattress) - across from the seating area. Down the hall to the left - across from the full kitchen and the bath (with shower) - is the master bedroom with a queen sized bed. In the next room off the master is a bedroom with it's own side entrance/exit and full bed and large closet. All beds have soft sheets and light down comforters (nights are chilly in the high desert). (Plz note that there is an addtl $10 fee per stay per bed use for 3 or more beds if (URL HIDDEN) $20 extra for 3rd and 4th bed utilization.. keeps my maid happy and my cleaning costs lower:). It is very pet/child friendly. There is an additional $10 per stay pet fee.Honor system: pop your fee cash/check in the wonder woman lunch box on top of the microwave. High Speed internet and a large flat screen TV with DVD player and loads of movies. No Cable. There is a central AC/heat unit, with supplemental heaters for the occasional chilly day/night. Please smoke outdoors ( and remember we're in the beautiful tinder box of the mountainous Chihuahuan desert :)
Huge fenced back yard with ramada/shaded structure over outside dining room table and 4 chairs and firepit with 6 deck chairs.
The Bottle house is located next door to the Alpine Studio (our other bnb) and 2 doors down from several fun shops and restaurants where you can dine on tasty mexican food (Jalapeños & El Patio are 2 doors down in 2 diff directions), enjoy lunch & every child's dream: slurp icy "raspas" (Raspa Co.) 3 doors down, shop for gifts and treasures (Brown Dog Gardens, Patti Hildreth Studio), get your hair done at Preety Bird Salon, enjoy the Saturday Farmer's Market at the Old Ritchie Hotel - all within 2 blocks on Murphy Street
The place is incredibly well located for exploring on foot.
Holland Street is one block north of Murphy Street and it is the "other" main street (on the north side of the "tracks": Amtrak)
Holland Street boasts: The Holland Hotel (1 block) with a great bar and restaurant. Across from the Holland is a fab restaurant/bar with gluten free (if you wish) pizza: Guzzi Up. The Saddle Club (lovely bar and tapas/3 blocks away), the Reata restaurant (upscale: 4 blocks), the world famous Railroad Blues honkytonk pub/music venue (4 blocks),the Rangra movie theatre (1 block), several art galleries/fabulous shops (Ivey's, Kiowa Gallery, "yours truly" at Galeria Sibley) and locally owned Front Street Books/PLAINE coffee shop (wonderful homemade pastries/cappucinos) with the best West Texas "Cow Dogs" next door (including vegan:)
Sul Ross State University is about 8 blocks east on Holland, next door to our fave Italian restaurant, La Trattoria (great pizzas, pasta and sandwiches/family owned). Sul Ross has a great Museum of the Big Bend and a huge indoor salt water pool that is open to the public and costs $1. There are also some great hiking trails behind the university that give you an amazing 360 view of the country (15-20 minutes up). There is a "desk" on the top of Sul Ross Hill that has a notebook in it to record your ruminations - fun activity!
Alpine is located at "the hub of the wheel" and the neighboring communities of Marfa (West/huge minimalist art scene:Donald Judd), Marathon (East/Gage Hotel), Fort Davis (North: McDonald's Observatory/Historic Fort) are approx. 20 minutes away in any given direction.
The Bottle House is 1/2 block south of the Amtrak station (there is some train noise so I supply individually wrapped earplugs for sensitive sleepers:). The Holland Hotel is 2 blocks away (nicest hotel in town) and they provide the same for their hotel guests. Murphy Street was Alpine's main street in some of it's earliest years as "Murphyville."

The skies in our country are unfathomably clear and beautiful so make sure to schedule a Star Gazing party at McDonald's Observatory in Fort Davis about 45 minutes away. Our backyard is also a great spot for a more relaxed experience of star gazing:) The Fort in Fort Davis is also a lovely spot.
Balmorhea boasts the largest spring fed public pool in the state, with amazing cottage rentals..check them out! (via Texas State Parks website)
Big Bend National Park/the Mexican border are about 45 minutes south. (Terlingua Ghost Town boasts the Starlight Theatre/Restuarant, Desert Sports runs river trips/biking trips: great folk, Lajitas Resort is "lovely.")
Big Bend Ranch State Park tends not to be as busy as BBNP and has a wonderful (and cheap) bunkhouse for accommodations OR the old adobe ranch headquarters that is dreamy. Great camping, hiking, biking etc..The Solitario region is awesome and one of our fave spots.
Other:
Blue Water Grocery Store for organic food on Hwy 118 south.
Saturdays: Farmer's Market from 9 -10:30 am is 1 block away on Murphy Street (be still my heart:) in the old Ritchey Hotel that is being lovingly (and slowly) restored.
Regina's for mani/ped(URL HIDDEN)
Preety Bird Salon down the street for hair/grooming - next door to Brown Dog Gardens. "Neighbor Nancy" has Brown Dog Gardens and is your "go to person" if you have any immediate needs when here or I am a text away :)
Call/email me with any questions.

Art work in the Bottle House is Ann Eckley, Alpine
Thread painting (sewing machine)
Gallery on the Square 115 W Holland (1 block away)

Tom Curry Painting and Sculpture
Gallery located behind us AND (website hidden) on Holland Avenue one block away

Liz Sibley, Alpine Mosaics Galeria Sibley 103 West Holland

Rachel Sibley, Austin/Alpine

Woody Farris, Fredericksburg (website hidden)

Butch Hancock, Austin/Terlingua Butch Hancock is a country/folk music legend. Hancock is a member of The Flatlanders along with Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, but he principally performs solo or with his son.

Saul Steinberg, New York (phone number hidden) years of covers/drawings for The New Yorker.

View of the World from 9th Avenue is one of his most famous works.

Charles Bragg Charles Bragg is an American sculptor, painter, artist and author known best for his satirical artwork

Jessica Lutz, Marfa (website hidden)

Diane Bailey, Alpine Assemblages

Jake McClure, Austin “Blackbird" Charcoal on paper affixed to wood

Suzanne Germond, Austin Mosaics

Please check out by 11 am unless you have made other arrangements with us.
Special reduced rate for week reservations can only utilize one weekend ie no Sat to Sat booking please
Thanks!

The Alpine Bottling Works* was founded in the early 1920‘s by Basil Matthew's father and uncle, Walter Matthews. It was the original Alpine bottling plant, “...next door to Thain's Studio, a little garden and then the bottlin' plant alongside it....the plant was about 60 feet wide and maybe about 100 feet long. It had a porch with a loadin' dock out on the north side...facin' the depot, the railroad tracks...there was no sign...people just knew. There was no street signs in Alpine and everybody knew everybody.."*

This original plant, The Bottling Works, was the hand bottling kind that used to be called a foot (URL HIDDEN) the machine that has no electricty, no power. The power is all in your feet and in your hands...the bottles had to be taken off the bottle (washing) machine, put on crates and carried over to the bottlin' machine. We'd have a stack of clean bottles here and then (we'd) bottle them. It was just a one man operation....well, (URL HIDDEN) man runnin' the washing machine and one doin' the bottles.. our trucks couldn't carry but about 50 cases in them, those ol' Model T trucks..just me, my dad and my brother...of course, one of us would be there all the time...but we didn't run the bottlin' process every day...about 2 days a week, you'd bottle up enough for that week .....Basil Matthews p.22 -24

“..we ordered extract from these extract companies..and we'ld mix it with sugar and (URL HIDDEN) of our biggest expenses was the sugar..the extracts were strawberry, lemon, lime, vanilla and Delaware Punch...and at times we'ld run Orange Crush...but it didn't take much carbonation and we had trouble with the yeast forming in (URL HIDDEN) not having the carbonation, it tended to get bad and formed this (URL HIDDEN) made sort of a wave, it looked like a piece of paper floating in there..."

“(In (URL HIDDEN) mother drank some Dr. Pepper up there in Waco and she just insisted on it...we just hounded the Dr. Pepper company to start it here..they finally sent a man out here...and he told me, ‘Well, now you've got to put Dr. Peeper signs on your trucks and you gotta git a new bottlin' machine.' We was using a foot stomper. Used to be, you did a bottle of beer with it (laughing)...The Coca Cola plant was in Marfa...Coca Cola was the leadin' drink then and eventually Pepsi-Cola caught up with it...we made the first Dr. Pepper ever in West Texas here!...the first wood barrel of (Dr. Pepper) syrup came to Alpine...we mixed our own syrup on everythin' else..

At that time, we didn't have refrigerated water system. So I took a barrel and put a copper coil in it and put a 50 lb block of ice in there to cool the water that was goin' to the machine. Because the gas will not mix unless you've got cold (URL HIDDEN) was a one man job..we'd set a case of empty bottles down there and just pick one bottle at a time. ...*Oral History, Basil Matthews (PHONE NUMBER HIDDEN), p.7-24, SRSU Archives
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Guest Access

The entire house is yours/complete privacy as well as the full back yard/patio seating under shade. There is a washer and dryer in back you are welcome to use...honor system: pop $5.00 in box on fridge plz for each use.

Interaction with Guests

I do not live on site (I live 10 minutes away) but am an excellent communicator by email, text, phone. My neighbor Nancy at "Brown Dog Gardens" is always on hand if needed to answer any questions/lend a hand if needed...also my niece Kiowa (3 blocks away) is avail. in a pinch.

The Neighborhood

Murphy Street is artsy and funky and folks are super friendly. Parking on the street by the front door is easy and super safe - as is all of Alpine. Dog and family friendly neighborhood.

Getting Around

Amtrak is across the street :) You can rent bikes from "Bikeman" - 3 blocks away.
You can rent cars at Alpine Auto Rental and they are really flexible about drop off times etc..