Ventura County Landmark No. 52: Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village
Historical Background
Grandma Tressa Prisbrey created a fanciful folk art village of 14 structures with walls and ceilings made of cement embedded with recycled trash, multicolored bottles, and discarded objects such as pencils, dolls, and car headlights, from 1956 to 1981. The name “Bottle Village” comes from the structures themselves – made of tens of thousands of discarded bottles retrieved by Grandma on her daily excursions to the nearby dump (Preserve Bottle Village Committee, 2012).
The buildings represent two doll houses, a schoolhouse, library, rumpus room, roundhouse, Cleopatra’s bedroom, wishing well, and a religious shrine. Grandma Prisbrey’s first structure was built to house her pencil collection. A video documentary has been made of the village and its history, and examples of her folk art have been included in international folk art shows in Japan, Germany, and England. It was badly damaged in the January 1994 Northridge earthquake.
In addition, the property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 25, 1996.
Additional Reading
References
Preserve Bottle Village Committee (2012). Bottle Village History. http://www.bottlevillage.com/about/bvhistory.htm.
Date Designated: June 1979
Location: 4595 Cochran Street, Simi Valley
Photos:
