Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village

This assemblage is one of California's Twentieth Century Folk Art Environments. In 1956, Tressa Prisbrey, then nearly 60 years old, started building a "village" of shrines, walkways, sculptures, and buildings from recycled items and discards from the local landfill. She worked for 25 years creating one structure after another to house her collections. Bottle Village is California Historical Landmark number 939. Is ia also a Ventura County Cultural Landmark, and has historic designation from the City of Simi Valley. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The village is located at 4595 Cochran Street, Simi Valley and viewable from the sidewalk. It was officially closed in 1984 and severely damaged during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake.




I have taken many photos of the village from the street as it is not officially open, but one Sunday afternoon late last year, in a moment of synchronicity, Jeff and I happened to be driving down the street the village is on, and I saw the gates open! I could hardly contain myself! Jeff did a U turn and, camera in hand we went in. One of the ladies who is a care taker happened to be there and she was gracious enough to allow us in to look around, and we snapped hundreds of photos. Here are a few of this wonderful folk art treasure! Enjoy.