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Coca-Cola Bottling Plant (Bogalusa, Louisiana)

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Coordinates: 30°47′22″N 89°51′55″W / 30.78944°N 89.86528°W / 30.78944; -89.86528
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Bogalusa Coca Cola Bottling Plant
Two-story brick building with Coca-Cola themed panel
The recently renovated building in 2024
Located on the far eastern edge of Louisiana
Located on the far eastern edge of Louisiana
Located on the far eastern edge of Louisiana
Located on the far eastern edge of Louisiana
Location213 Shenandoah Street, Bogalusa, Louisiana 70427
Coordinates30°47′22″N 89°51′55″W / 30.78944°N 89.86528°W / 30.78944; -89.86528
AreaBogalusa Historic Cultural District
Builtc. 1930
Built byDye & Mullings of Columbus, Mississippi
ArchitectPringle & Smith of Atlanta
Architectural styleBeaux-Arts
NRHP reference No.100003379[1]
Added to NRHPMay 29, 2019

The Coca-Cola Bottling Plant is a former industrial plant in Bogalusa, Louisiana for a bottling franchise of the Coca-Cola company. The National Register of Historic Places listed the building which now operates as an event venue named The Coke Plant.[2]

History

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John Claude "J.C." Mills founded the Bogalusa Coca Cola Bottling Company in 1910 and built a two-story wood structure where the current brick building now stands. This building replaced that earlier structure in either 1930 or 1931. The facility bottled soda until 1985 when the Baton Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Co. bought the company and closed the Bogalusa plant to consolidate operations.[3]

The building sat vacant for decades and experienced extensive water damage. In 2018, the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation identified the bottling plant as one of the most endangered historic sites in Louisiana.[4][5] The next year, the National Register listed it as part of a preservation effort by the Bogalusa Historic Cultural District.[2]

The Blackstone Property Company, owned by Bernie Brennan and James Brennan, purchased the building in 2020 with the intent to restore the structure, partly using historic rehab tax credits. That family had a long-term association with Coca-Cola as they started Brennan's Vend Works, which had been selling Coke products since its founding in 1950.[6] After two years of renovations led by James Brennan, the building reopened in 2023 as "The Coke Plant", a wedding venue with a 500-person capacity.[7]

Architecture

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A similar bottling plant in Tifton, Georgia, but having one fewer terra cotta panel

Coca-Cola hired the architecture firm Pringle & Smith to design standardized designs for their bottling franchises to use when constructing production facilities. These distinctive Beaux-Arts buildings extended Coca-Cola's recognizable branding to the physical landscape of towns.[8] The Bogalusa building is the "Standard Plant No. 3" from the 1929 edition of the Coca-Cola Bottler’s Standards publication.[3]

Both the front and two sides include prominent built-in terra cotta panels featuring the "Coca-Cola" logo and contoured Coke bottle motifs surrounded by honeysuckle leaves.[9] Prior to the renovations, the logos were tinted red and the bottles green, but the panels are now a solid cream color.

The two-story front of the red brick building originally served as the offices and has a formal entrance with a concrete door surround. A hipped roof supported by plain modillions tops this section. The rear of the structure, where the bottling plant and garage were originally located, is just one story with a flat roof. The middle of the structure has a beam roof structure forming a covered central courtyard. Metal factory sash windows are used throughout the complex.[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "National Register of Historic Places Weekly Lists 2019" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. December 23, 2019. p. 73. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Ardoin, Emily (February 1, 2020). "National Register of Historic Places adds 15 new resources in Louisiana". Preservation in Print. New Orleans: Preservation Resource Center. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Winn, Claire Cothren (August 8, 2018). "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Bogalusa Coca Cola Bottling Company Building". National Register of Historic Places. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. Retrieved December 1, 2024 – via Louisiana Office of Cultural Development.
  4. ^ Reynold, Robbie (August 27, 2018). "Organization puts 15 historic sites on Endangered Places list". WAFB. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Gray Television. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  5. ^ Carter, Lucie Monk (August 27, 2018). "Endangered Places: Keeping history from crumbling". Country Roads Magazine. St. Francisville, Louisiana. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  6. ^ "Historic Coca-Cola building purchased". Bogalusa Daily News. December 31, 2020. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  7. ^ "Coke plant transformed into wedding, event venue". Bogalusa Daily News. 2023. Retrieved November 24, 2024 – via Issuu.
  8. ^ Craig, Robert M. (2001). "Beaux-Arts meets Southern Industry: The Coca-Cola Bottling Plants of Francis Palmer Smith". Arris: The Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. 12. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press: 92–106. Retrieved November 24, 2024 – via Project MUSE.
  9. ^ Schuver, Justin (August 29, 2018). "State trust recognizes historic landmark". Bogalusa Daily News. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
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