Coca-Cola Bottling Plant (Bogalusa, Louisiana)

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = Bogalusa Coca Cola Bottling Plant

| nrhp_type = nrhp

| image = Bogalusa Coca Cola Bottling Plant.jpg

| caption = The recently renovated building in 2024

| alt = Two-story brick building with Coca-Cola themed panel

| location = 213 Shenandoah Street, Bogalusa, Louisiana 70427

| locmapin = Louisiana#USA

| map_alt = Located on the far eastern edge of Louisiana

| coordinates = {{coord|30|47|22|N|89|51|55|W|display=inline,title}}

| area = Bogalusa Historic Cultural District

| built = c. 1930

| added = May 29, 2019

| architect = Pringle & Smith of Atlanta

| architecture = Beaux-Arts

| builder = Dye & Mullings of Columbus, Mississippi

| visitation_num =

| visitation_year =

| refnum = 100003379{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-2019-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Weekly Lists 2019 |date=December 23, 2019 |website=National Register of Historic Places |publisher=National Park Service |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |page=73 |accessdate=November 24, 2024}}

}}

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.{{cite web |url=https://prcno.org/national-register-historic-places-adds-15-new-resources-louisiana/ |title=National Register of Historic Places adds 15 new resources in Louisiana |last=Ardoin |first=Emily |date=February 1, 2020 |website=Preservation in Print |publisher=Preservation Resource Center |publication-place=New Orleans |access-date=November 24, 2024}}

History

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.crt.state.la.us/dataprojectsVS/NRHP/PublicForms/ViewProperty/1482 |title=National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Bogalusa Coca Cola Bottling Company Building |last=Winn |first=Claire Cothren |date=August 8, 2018 |website=National Register of Historic Places |publisher=National Park Service |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |access-date=December 1, 2024 |via=Louisiana Office of Cultural Development}}

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.wafb.com/story/38970063/organization-puts-15-historic-sites-on-endangered-places-list-louisiana-st-francisville/ |title=Organization puts 15 historic sites on Endangered Places list |last=Reynold |first=Robbie |date=August 27, 2018 |website=WAFB |publisher=Gray Television |publication-place=Baton Rouge, Louisiana |access-date=November 24, 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/history/endangered-places/ |title=Endangered Places: Keeping history from crumbling |last=Carter |first=Lucie Monk |date=August 27, 2018 |website=Country Roads Magazine |publisher= |publication-place=St. Francisville, Louisiana |access-date=March 16, 2025}} The next year, the National Register listed it as part of a preservation effort by the Bogalusa Historic Cultural District.

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.bogalusadailynews.com/2020/12/31/historic-coca-cola-building-purchased/ |title=Historic Coca-Cola building purchased |last= |first= |date=December 31, 2020 |website=Bogalusa Daily News |publisher=Boone Newspapers |access-date=March 16, 2025}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://issuu.com/bogalusadailynews/docs/user_this_one-profile_2023/s/23792279 |title=Coke plant transformed into wedding, event venue |last= |first= |date=2023 |website=Bogalusa Daily News |publisher=Boone Newspapers |access-date=March 16, 2025 |via=Issuu}}

Architecture

File:Coca-Cola building, Tifton (SE corner).jpg, 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.{{cite journal |last1=Craig |first1=Robert M. |date=2001 |title=Beaux-Arts meets Southern Industry: The Coca-Cola Bottling Plants of Francis Palmer Smith |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/arr.2001.0004 |journal=Arris: The Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians |volume=12 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |publication-place=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |pages=92-106 |access-date=November 24, 2024 |url-access=subscription |via=Project MUSE}} The Bogalusa building is the "Standard Plant No. 3" from the 1929 edition of the Coca-Cola Bottler’s Standards publication.

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.bogalusadailynews.com/2018/08/29/state-trust-recognizes-historic-landmark/ |title=State trust recognizes historic landmark |last=Schuver |first=Justin |date=August 29, 2018 |website=Bogalusa Daily News |publisher=Boone Newspapers |access-date=March 16, 2025 |url-access=}} 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.