Original Site of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Dallas
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Original Site of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Dallas One of the first companies in the nation granted franchise rights for the distribution of Coca-Cola in bottles, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Dallas produced the city's first bottle of Coca-Cola on this site on June 10, 1902. J.T. Lupton of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was the principal owner, with an initial investment of $5,000. Three employees handled the entire operation. They were: R.D. Twinam, company manager; Mr. Dixon, the bookkeeper; and Fred Welsh, who operated the bottling machine. The employees sold 37 cases on the first day of production and delivered them in a one-horse wagon. In the bottling process, glass Coca-Cola bottles were filled by using a hand-operated, foot-powered machine that held two bottles, one beneath the syrup and the other under the filling head for the carbonated water, where the bottles also were capped. Bottles were reused and had to be hand-washed by putting cleaning fluid and steel pellets, similar to gunshot, into the bottles and shaking them vigorously. By 1905, sales of Coca-Cola had increased such that the company moved the bottling plant to 1800 Wood Street. From its small beginnings here in Deep Ellum, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Dallas, later renamed the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of North Texas, grew to more than 2,600 employees in 19 locations by its centennial in Dallas in 2002. (2002)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On this Deep Ellum site in June 1902, three employees produced Dallas's first bottled Coca-Cola using a hand-operated, foot-powered machine that filled two bottles at a time. They sold 37 cases the first day from a one-horse wagon, washing and reusing the heavy glass bottles by shaking them with cleaning fluid and steel shot. Within three years the operation had outgrown the block, the first step toward a company that employed thousands by its centennial.
Why it matters
The scene captures the hand-labor origins of a national mass-market brand, when a soft-drink empire still meant three people, a wagon, and a foot pedal.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
At the turn of the twentieth century, Dallas was a busy railroad and commercial city that was growing quickly. East of downtown, the neighborhood later known as Deep Ellum was filling with small factories, shops and workers. It was the kind of place where a new business could set up in a modest building and start making things.
Coca-Cola was still young. It had been created in Atlanta in the 1880s and sold mostly at soda fountains, mixed by the glass from syrup and carbonated water. Bottling it for people to drink anywhere was a newer idea. In 1899 the company's leaders signed an agreement giving a small group of Chattanooga businessmen broad rights to bottle the drink. Those men then built a network of local bottlers across the country under franchise.
Technology was catching up too. The crown bottle cap, invented in the 1890s, made it practical to seal carbonated drinks reliably. Even so, a small bottling works around 1900 still depended almost entirely on human hands, feet and muscle.
People & events
The principal owner of the Dallas venture was J.T. Lupton of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He put up an initial $5,000. Lupton was one of the Chattanooga figures closely tied to the early growth of Coca-Cola bottling, and Dallas was among the first places in the nation to receive franchise rights.
The whole operation was run by three men. R.D. Twinam managed the company, a bookkeeper named Mr. Dixon kept the accounts, and Fred Welsh ran the bottling machine. On June 10, 1902, they produced the first bottle of Coca-Cola ever made in Dallas. By the end of the first day they had sold 37 cases and delivered them by one-horse wagon.
The work was hard and physical. Welsh's machine was hand-operated and powered by a foot pedal. It held two bottles at once, one under the syrup and one under the filling head for carbonated water, where it was also capped. Empty bottles came back to be reused and were cleaned by hand: a worker poured in cleaning fluid and small steel pellets, like gunshot, and shook each bottle hard. Demand grew so fast that by 1905 the plant moved to a larger site on Wood Street.
Its place in the American story
Coca-Cola became one of the best-known brands in the world partly because of a business model that started in places like this. Local bottlers were independently owned under franchise, put up their own money and served their own regions. That local network is how a fountain drink from Atlanta became something you could buy on almost any American street corner.
The Dallas site shows how humble that system was at the start. Before conveyor lines and automated washers, a national mass-market product depended on three employees, a foot-powered machine and a horse. The jump from 37 cases a day to a company that, by its Dallas centennial in 2002, employed more than 2,600 people in 19 locations is the story of American consumer industry in miniature.
The site also adds to the history of Deep Ellum. The neighborhood is best remembered today for music and nightlife, but it began as a working industrial and commercial district where modern businesses got their start.
If you visit
The marker stands in Deep Ellum, just east of downtown Dallas, where the company bottled its first Coca-Cola. Don't expect a museum or the original machinery. The interest here is in imagining a small room with a foot pedal and a clinking two-bottle filler, and a wagon outside waiting for its load.
The neighborhood is good to explore on foot, with murals, music venues, restaurants and old brick commercial buildings from its industrial past. Look at the older storefronts and warehouses for a sense of the scale of business that once filled these streets.
For families, the marker is an easy, fun history lesson in how everyday things get made. Kids who have only seen soda come off a store shelf may enjoy hearing that every bottle was once washed by hand, by shaking steel shot around inside it. It fits well into a day exploring downtown Dallas's historic districts.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · J.T. Lupton
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