In 1878, the Congress and Empire Spring Company was the largest mineral water bottling company in the world with sales of over one million bottles annually. In 1879, the Hotchkiss family became the principal stockholders and "Hotchkiss' Sons" was added to the bottle embossing. Under B.B. Hotchkiss, Congress and Empire Spring Company had agents in all the major cities of Europe. Saratoga waters were a cosmopolitan beverage at the time. In 1884, the Congress and Empire Spring Company was dissolved and split into the Congress Spring Company and the Empire Spring Company. These companies continued to flourish with the Congress Spring Company selling one million bottles in 1888. In 1889, the use of Saratoga bottles was discontinued for a more modern bottle closure. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Saratoga waters were in decline. Both the Congress Spring Company and the Empire Spring Company were put up for auction in 1904. In 1906, the federal Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, which limited the claims that could be made for spring waters, bringing the production of most bottled Saratoga water to an end (Puckhaber 1976:22-26, 30).
Four Hotchkiss-era bottles were recovered from the Stanwix Hall Hotel privy. Numerous bottle necks without embossed lettering were found in the excavation that match the Congress and Empire Spring bottles but cannot be attributed to a particular era of bottling beyond 1869 to 1889. Additional Hotchkiss bottles were identified during construction monitoring.