In 1971, Charlie Yelton began building his bottle houses in Forest City, NC. He had seen a TV program about the Bottle House at Knott's Berry Farm in California and was inspired to try it himself. He had just retired after 50 years (worked in a lumber mill) and needed something to do. Four years and nearly 12,000 bottles later, he had created three bottle houses, a glass wishing well, and a glass flower planter out of beer, whiskey, 7-Up and Milk of Magnesia bottles.
Yelton had no knowledge of how to build a house – just figured it out as he went. The floor of the main house is studded with his granddaughter's baby food jars. The interior of the "Altar Room" was done in red and contained a throne where Charlie would pray. Its stained glass effect was spiritual to Charlie. "I come here pretty often when I want to be alone with the Lord. I kneel down and talk to the Lord for awhile and when I leave, I feel a lot better."
Charlie died in 1993 at the age of 84 and, although still in his family's hands, the future of these structures is uncertain. As of 2004, it appears that the house on the property is unoccupied. The roof of the larger bottle house is now caving in.
