BY PAT SIDES
Seen here in the 1950s, the Bernardin Bottle Cap, Inc. was one of the largest manufacturers of home-canning lids and screw caps in the nation. The company, established in 1881, was originally located a block from the Vanderburgh County Courthouse before a larger plant was built in 1948 at 2201 West Maryland Street, where it employed hundreds of people.
Company founder Alfred Louis Bernardin, a native of France and wine importer, discovered the need for a more secure closure for bottles during shipment. Eventually, the corporation earned a national reputation for manufacturing metal and plastic caps before expanding its line to metal cans and home-canning lids for jars.
The business remained in the family until 1980, when Bernardin was acquired by the National Can Corporation. In recent decades, another company has continued to manufacture containers in the same plant.
