Bottle Village Landmark Receives $15,000 Grant

The history of a Simi Valley woman’s artistic contribution to the community will be preserved and archived thanks to a grant awarded this week.

The New York-based Judith Rothschild Foundation has given $15,000 to Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village, say representatives of the local landmark.

The grant, which was awarded in conjunction with the Los Angeles-based Saving and Preserving of Arts and Cultural Environments, will be used to archive and record the history of the late Simi Valley resident, “Grandma” Tressa Prisbrey.

Prisbrey’s story and her contribution to the community began in 1955, when the folk artist started constructing buildings out of old bottles and mortar. Before she was done building the structures in 1981, she had made 15 buildings out of hundreds of thousands of bottles.

Damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake closed the landmark to the public.

Oddly enough, Prisbrey began building the village’s initial structure as a place to keep a vast collection of pencils, said Daniel Paul, an Anaheim resident and art historian who has been volunteering at Bottle Village since 1994. She chose bottles for building materials because she could not afford anything else, he said.

“Whatever she found that intrigued her, she would take home,” he said.

The grant, he said, shows that the artistic community recognizes Bottle Village, at 4595 Cochran St., as a significant landmark.

Bottle Village volunteers hope to collect vintage photographs, artifacts and stories from community members who knew Prisbrey before she died in 1988.

Residents who can contribute to the archival process can contact Paul at (714) 776-6175 or Bottle Village at 583-1627.

Bottle Village’s Web site is www.primenet.com/nrbq/bv/.