Browse Items (34 total)

  • Collection: Mt. Zircon exhibit images

"Syrup room" of the Mount Zircon Spring Water Co. bottling plant

Still Image / Available Online

Brightly lit with numerous windows, the “syrup room” on the second floor of the new bottling plant boasted tiled walls and a decorative pressed metal ceiling.

1858 map detail showing Abbotsville and spring

Still Image

Gillette and Huntington’s 1858 wall Map of Oxford County, Maine, identifies Mount Zircon as “Peaked Mt.” and Little Mount Zircon as “Thornton Mt.” Named for Dexter D. W. Abbott, the founder of the mineral spring business on Mount Zircon,…

1926 Mount Zircon Ginger Champagne ad

Still Image / Available Online

Flavored and carbonated beverages made with water from the Moon Tide Spring began to appear in the late 1890s. The famous Mount Zircon Ginger Champagne had become the Company’s most popular drink by the 1920s.

Alphonse Dupuis

Still Image / Available Online

Alphonse Dupuis purchased “Mount Zircon Spring, Inc.” in May of 1948 and remained at the company’s helm into the early 1970s. They syrup room’s stainless steel tanks held a mixture of sugar and concentrated flavorings, which was eventually combined…

Article concerning Mt. Zircon House fire, 1872

Still Image / Available Online

Boston office of the Mount Zircon Spring Company

Still Image / Available Online

The Mount Zircon Spring Company, later the Mount Zircon Spring Water Company, maintained a main office in Boston from the 1890s until the 1920s.

Dexter Abbott’s 1848 deed

Text

In 1848, Dexter D. W. Abbott, founder of the mineral spring business at Mt. Zircon, bought farm property at the foot of the mountain on Stickney (now “Zircon”) Brook. Mount Zircon is known as “Peaked Mountain” during this early period. The area is…

First Mount Zircon bottling plant

Still Image / Available Online

First Mount Zircon bottling plant attic

Still Image / Available Online

The attic story of the first Mount Zircon bottling house was where capping operations took place and where wooden crates were assembled. A close examination of this photograph taken in January 1914 reveals bottles containing Ginger Champagne (on the…

First Mount Zircon bottling plant being erected

Still Image / Available Online

The first bottling house on Mount Zircon was erected during the summer of 1896. Sited opposite the spring house on the road over “Zircon Hill,” the modest structure contained rooms on the first floor where the head bottler, Jason Hall, and his family…

First Mount Zircon bottling plant interior

Still Image / Available Online

Taken in January of 1914, this is one of the few interior photographs of the first Mount Zircon bottling house known to exist. To prevent contamination during the bottling process, workers were required to wear caps and long smocks, and no smoking…

Francis P. Putnam and family

Still Image

One-time owner of the Moon Tide Spring and “agent” for the Mount Zircon Spring Company, Francis P. Putnam is shown in this circa 1890 photograph alongside his sister, Drusilla Putnam Abbott Jackson, and his wife, Eunice Putnam.

Hauling Mount Zircon water in wooden barrels

Still Image / Available Online

From the late 1850s until the early 1890s, spring water was hauled off Mount Zircon in large wooden barrels. Steep and often muddy, the road from the spring to the valley floor challenged even expert horse drivers.

Herbert Hall

Still Image / Available Online

Herbert Hall (on the left) remained with the Mount Zircon firm until around 1944, when a disagreement with the company’s owners over the cost of producing the famous Ginger Champagne (Hall refused to cheapen the recipe) brought about his departure.…

Herbert Hall's "rotary beverage mixer"

Still Image / Available Online

Manager of the bottling operations at Mount Zircon for many years, Herbert Hall was also something of an inventor. His “rotary beverage mixer,” shown here, was capable of handling between six and sixteen cases per minute. Hall received a patent for…

Interior of second Mount Zircon bottling plant

Still Image / Available Online

The interior of the second Mount Zircon bottling plant as it appeared in 1975. Capping and shaking operations are taking place.

Mount Zircon bottling plant loading dock

Still Image / Available Online

In the expectation that a spur line from the Maine Central Railroad might be extended to the new bottling plant, the loading dock area at its east end was left unfinished for a time. The massive brick chimney was connected to a steam-heating system…

Mount Zircon fire tower

Still Image / Available Online

A steel-framed fire tower was erected on the summit of Mount Zircon in the spring of 1922, just as the new bottling plant at the mountain’s base was being prepared for opening.

Mount Zircon Ginger Champagne ad

Still Image / Available Online

The 1926 advertisement from Sun-Up, Maine’s Own Magazine presented a fairly accurate rendition of Mount Zircon, complete with its new fire tower and bottling plant.

Mount Zircon label

Still Image / Available Online

The now-famous Mount Zircon Moon Tide Spring trademark, showing a full moon rising over a cascading stream of water, probably dates from 1897, when the company began packaging spring water in glass bottles with paper labels. Over the years, at least…

Mount Zircon spring house

Still Image / Available Online

The Mount Zircon spring house, a small, hip-roofed building that once sported a crescent moon-shaped weathervane, was constructed over the Moon Tide Spring in 1890. The building remains standing today.

Mount Zircon Spring Water Co. bottle-shaped automobile

Still Image / Available Online

The most ambitious advertising promotion put forth in the 1920s by the Mount Zircon Spring Water Company was an automobile in the shape of a quart container of Ginger Champagne. The vehicle was mainly used in the Boston area.

Mount Zircon Spring Water Co. delivery truck

Still Image / Available Online

Parked in front of Rumford’s Municipal Building, a Mount Zircon delivery truck from the 1920s displays various types of advertising, including a giant spring water bottle, an “Indian” hood ornament, and the famous Moon Tide Spring logo.

Mount Zircon Spring Water Co. plant

Still Image / Available Online

In response to an ever-increasing demand for Mount Zircon products, a much larger bottling plant was constructed alongside the South Rumford road in 1921-1922. The building plans were provided by the Boston engineering firm of Cleverdon, Varney and…

Mount Zircon Spring Water Company bottle-shaped lunch stands

Still Image / Available Online

A handful of two-story, bottle-shaped lunch stands framed in wood and covered with a skin of galvanized metal were manufactured by the Mount Zircon Spring Water Company in the early 1920s.