Highlands Coca-Cola Bottling Company
The Highlands Coca-Cola Bottling Company was an industrial manufacturing plant established in Avon Park during the 1920s Florida land boom. Located in the industrial rail corridor adjacent to Lake Tulane and the Atlantic Coast Line tracks, the plant bottled and distributed carbonated beverages across Highlands and Hardee counties for nearly five decades.[nrhp-90000486]
Foundation and Industrial Development
During the post-World War I expansion, Avon Park’s growing role as a rail hub attracted regional manufacturing enterprises. Between 1920 and 1926, the industrial corridor along the railroad right-of-way—which on the 1920 Sanborn survey had centered on the Flint Lumber Company sawmill and citrus packing houses—expanded to include crate mills, the Avon Park Sash and Door Company, and the Coca-Cola bottling plant.[sanborn-1920][nrhp-90000486]
The plant operated under local proprietor and franchise manager J. S. Francis.[nrhp-90000486] During the 1920s and 1930s, the company produced proprietary embossed hobbleskirt green glass bottles bearing the mark “J. S. Francis / Avon Park, Fla.” along the base, distributing soft drinks to grocery stores, soda fountains, hotel dining rooms, and packing house crews across the Lake Wales Ridge.
Facility and Regional Operations
The bottling plant was situated to leverage direct access to municipal water resources, road networks, and rail spurs. The physical plant featured automated washing, syrup mixing, carbonation, and crowning machinery. A distinctive large-scale replica Coca-Cola bottle stood on the property near Lake Tulane, serving as a well-known community landmark.
As motorized route distribution developed in the 1930s and 1940s, the Highlands Coca-Cola Bottling Company maintained delivery truck fleets servicing retailers from Frostproof south to Lake Placid and west toward Bowling Green and Wauchula. The facility provided continuous industrial employment through the Great Depression and World War II.
Corporate Consolidation (1969)
In 1969, amid industry-wide modernization and regional consolidation of independent bottling franchises, the Avon Park bottling plant was acquired by regional corporate bottling interests. Production operations at the Lake Tulane facility were discontinued, and distribution for Highlands County was centralized to larger bottling plants in Lakeland, with veteran plant personnel offered transfers to regional facilities.
References
- nrhp-90000486 — United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District, reference 90000486. 22 March 1990. nrhp-avon-park-historic-district-1990.md
- sanborn-1920 — Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: Avon Park, Florida, November 1920. 1 November 1920. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn01234_001/
Related
- Report: the land boom and bust at Avon Park
- Finding: boom subdivisions and real estate speculation, 1912–1926
- Entity: Avon Park Sash and Door Company
- Report: merchants and commercial enterprises, 1915
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- society
Sources
- United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District, reference 90000486 (1990)
- Sanborn Map Company, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: Avon Park, Florida, November 1920 (1920)
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