Help the Hood Milk Bottle Become the ‘Quirkiest’ Landmark in the Country

Hood Milk Bottle photo Uploaded by OpenRoads.com on Flickr

Boston has a lot of historic landmarks—the Freedom Trail, the Old State House, Faneuil Hall, and Samuel Adams’ gravesite come to mind—but one spot in particular is in the race to become known across the country as the strangest of them all.

USA TODAY’s “10Best Readers’ Choice” series recently launched an online contest calling on travelers to help them pick between the 10 “quirkiest” sites across the country, and whittle the list down to one location that they think is a must-see for anyone visiting a particular city.

On that list, vying for the top spot against places like the “Beer Can House” in Houston, Texas, and a giant troll in Seattle is Boston’s own Hood Milk Bottle. “These quirky landmarks are part of what makes America great,” according to the contest organizers, who are relying on the keen eye of the traveling public to round up the best destination spots the US has to offer.

Located in the Fort Point area, directly outside the Boston Children’s Museum on Congress Street, the Hood Milk Bottle was gifted to the museum by the milk company in the late 1970s. It was originally an ice cream stand that was housed in Taunton more than 30 years ago, before it was moved to the city via boat in the 1970s, an adventure that’s now known as the “Great Bottle Sail.” In the last decade the bottle underwent some serious renovations before it was officially reopened in 2007, on the 30th anniversary of its journey across the harbor.

Standing at around 40-feet tall (it could hold more than 50,000 gallons of milk if it were an actual container) and used as a food and drink stand, the big bottle has enthralled people that aren’t from around these parts, so it’s no wonder it somehow landed on the top 10 list.

As it stands, the milk bottle’s chances of coming in at number one are curdling fast. While the exact totals aren’t available, the top five contenders in order of most to least votes are “Big Tex,” Carhenge, the Longaberger home office, Paul Bunyan and Babe, and the Cadillac Ranch. Fans of the giant Hood drink have until June 23 to put the landmark in the lead, at which point it could become the place that visitors  feel compelled to “turn the car around and go get a selfie with” when they see it, according to USA Today.