Front Royal, VA Coca-Cola Bottling Works 501 E Main St.

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

Hello everybody, I wanted to start a thread about everything I know about the local Coca-Cola bottling works here in our town of Front Royal, Virginia.

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

There were already a few bottling works here in town as of July, 1921. Christo-Cola since 1918 with their distinct onion bottle and the Crystal Springs Bottling Co. out of Luray, VA bottling Orange Squeeze and Bubble-Up in a straight sided, slug plate bottle. Crystal Springs was set up in the Old Virginia Orchard factory here in town, a repurposed large building formally a canning operation. Working right next to them in the same building was another company trying to gain a foothold here, the Hurwitz Creamery out of Charles Town, W.VA., and their manager a man named Clarence H. Simpson.

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

A year later in August of 1922, in the back of the Updike Ford dealership on Main St. was a new brick building being erected for the Coca-Cola bottling plant and their young manager the son of C.H.Simpson, Samuel C. Simpson. It's estimated they opened there doors in late August of 1922. By November of 1922 he was married to his new lovely wife and the Front Royal Coca-Cola bottling plant was thriving.

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

On November, 24 1922 Front Royal's east end of Main St. was burned down in a horrible fire completely destroying the newly built brick building of the Coca-Cola bottling works. Luckily Mr. Samms of Stanton (proprietor of the Coca-Cola bottling works) was able to retrieve most of the equipment which we understand was in good condition. Work began as early as Dec. 8th 1922 rebuilding and by July 20th 1923 the soon to be manager a "live wire" Frank Coffman brought 3 truckloads of bottles up from Harrisonburg, VA as business was now booming.

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

The Front Royal Coca-Cola bottling plant bottled Coke between August, 1922 and November, 1929. Sometime in the mid 1920's it was purchased by the Central Bottling Company and was believed to been used for storage not bottling after 1929. In the 1960's it moved to another storage location on 525 E Main St. There are no known Coke or Soda Water bottles from Front Royal, VA earlier than 1924 and later than 1929. The original building still stands today at 501 East Main St.

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

There was also a mural painted in town, it's a common misconception that this was the bottling plant. It was not, it's just one of the talest buildings in town.

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

The bottles are very interesting, with 5 distinct colors and 2 bottle manufactures. The Graham Glass Co. Evansville plant out of Evansville, Indiana (EG24-G29) and the Chattanooga Glass Company out of Tennessee in 1927 (Chatt '27). Both are clearly marked on the heel of every bottle. I have found other numbers on the heel that corelate to the 1-4 numbers embossed in the center of "Front Royal, VA" underneath each bottle. I believe these were numbers representing the 5 bottle making machines the Evansville plant used. Some of the Chatt '27 bottles do have a © symbol on the neck of the bottle. The other heel numbers are 2 digit numbers you can see them all on the charts, this further will help to date a bottle if the year is obscured.

heel letters and numbers embossed on each bottle
---------------------------------------------------------
576 - Coke bottles
1188 - Soda Water bottles

EG24 - Evansville Graham 1924
EG25 - Evansville Graham 1925
EG26 - Evansville Graham 1926
Chatt '27 - Chattanooga 1927
GRAHAM 29 - Graham 1929 (Coke bottles)
G29 - Graham 1929 (Soda Water bottles)

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

The bottles patented dated 1915 are Olive in 1924, Blue in 1925, Green in 1926 and Clear in 1927. The bottles patented dated 1923 (Christmas Cokes) are a Blue/Green for 1929. In the 3rd picture you can see the gradience of the color lined up according to date left to right. Bill Porter rates the Front Royal, VA Coke bottles with a 1915 patent as SCARCE and with the 1923 patent (Christmas Cokes) as SCARCE +. The bottle caps are extremally hard to find as many of the rusted on filled bottles or while buried.

I have not yet found an earlier marked bottle than 1924, or any FroRo bottles marked 1928. I am hopeful one day I may find a matching clear 1927 Chattooga Soda Water bottle.

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

The matching Soda Water bottles embossed "Coca-Cola" on the bottles and caps from Front Royal, VA. I've only found two other sodas to be bottled there so far, Indian Rock Ginger Ale and Ward's Orange Crush. It's presumed that these were bottled in Soda Water bottles.

 

[Helltown hobbleskirthound]

Newspaper advertisement clippings