The Coca-Cola Bottling Company was built in 1940 in Albany, Georgia. It was active until the early 2000s. In 2010, the building was donated to Sherwood Baptist Church, which now uses it as a community center.
Asa “Buddie” Candler Jr. (1880-1953) was the son of Asa Griggs Candler (1851-1929), a politician and businessman wbo purchased the Coca-Cola recipe from John Pemberton in 1888. Buddie Candler helped build the Coca-Cola empire as helped in the development of bottling locations across the United States.
Known as a bit of an iconoclast, Buddie Candler did things his way (I highly recommend Sara Butler’s book and website for a deep dive into Buddie’s life story). In 1910, Candler moved from the elite neighborhood, Inman Park, to Briarcliff Farm. By 1916, the farmhouse life was no longer for him, and he wanted to build a palatial estate on the property.
Architect Charles Frazier designed the home, which was completed in 1922. The Georgian Revival home was expanded several times over the years. It featured a music room, a commercial-sized kitchen, seven bedrooms, and a solarium, among other things. The estate featured a zoo, servants’ quarters, tennis courts, stables, greenhouses, and a community pool. The zoo featured a collection of animals that were eventually given to start the Grant Park Zoo.
The home was sold in 1948 as a veterans hospital, but that never happened. It became the Georgian Clinic, later the Dekalb County Addiction Center. It later became part of the Georgia Mental Health Institute.
The building is now owned by Emory University, and plans are underway to restore it and turn it into a nursing home.
Located on the southeast corner of Edgewood Avenue and Courtland Street in downtown Atlanta, Coca-Cola’s oldest remaining bottling plant is located. Originally created by John Pemberton in 1886 as a temperance drink from his original drink, Pemberton’s French Wine Cocanerve tonic, Coca-Cola began as a drink that could only be purchased at a soda fountain.
Built in 1892, the eclectic Victorian building began as a series of businesses on the first floor and a proprietor’s residence on the second floor. In the initial years, the building was a photographer’s studio, storage facility, and a brick business. In April 1900, it became the home of the second Coca-Cola bottling location (the first being in Chattanooga) after Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead convinced Asa Griggs Candler that the drink needed to be bottled. The company quickly outgrew the location and left in 1901 for a larger location.
The building is now the location for Georgia State University’s Baptist Student Union. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark.
Spartanburg Coca-Cola began in 1902 in a building behind the Spartan Inn. The fourth and final building was opened in 1936. The Art Deco construction was designed by local noted architect James Frank Collins, who designed the Masonic Temple, Spartanburg General Hospital, and Wofford and Converse campuses. The building was in use until 2017. It then sat abandoned until 2023, when plans were made to save the building and turn it into a mixed-use facility.
The history of this building is limited, and what is out there seems somewhat contradictory. According to the Early Coke website, the bottling plant was opened in 1906. This photo on the Encyclopedia of Arkansas website does not look like this building, so I don’t know if two buildings were built or if this one was modified and expanded over the years. Another website identifies it as being built in 1937, which I believe. I love the details with the Coke bottles.
If anyone has additional information, please let me know.
Founded in 1836, Townville is located in Anderson County. It was briefly incorporated after the Civil War, but it is now unincorporated.
