The Glass House

Whilst we were on the ferry some men on a golfing trip told us about The Glass House , so we were looking out for it. The House was built in the 1950's from embalming bottles, which apparently provides good insulation.It was an interesting sight but who would want to live in a house made from embalming bottles? As we left the house it started to rain and for the rest of the day , it was very wet, however this was the only really wet day of our holiday and we spent it driving to Fort Steele. We are now 1052km (658 miles) from Vancouver.

The Glass House Aug

This unusual roadside attraction was built from over half a million discarded embalming fluid bottles. In 1952, David H. Brown retired from 35 years in the funeral business. It occurred to Mr. Brown that there should be some practical use to put the bottles to. And, it was all started, to quote Mr. Brown, "to indulge a whim of a peculiar nature".

Mr. Brown travelled western Canada collecting bottles from many of his friends in the funeral profession, until he had acquired 500,000 of the square shaped bottles, weighing 250 tons in all.

The house itself sits upon solid rock. Built in a cloverleaf pattern with three main rooms, circular shape, 48 feet in length, 24 feet wide and with the upstairs room, it contains 1,200 sq ft of floor space.

Over 320 dozen flowers border pathways and entice visitors from the terrace over a bridge also built of glass bottles. A winding path beneath the bridge leads to the rocky lakeshore and a lookout called the lighthouse which offers a spectacular view of beautiful Kootenay Lake.