On the Line at Coca-Cola — 1964
by Paula Bosse
Gleaming!
by Paula Bosse
The photo above shows the sunniest factory floor I’ve ever seen. You don’t think of factories filled with sunlight, but this is what it looked like inside the new Coca-Cola bottling works at Lemmon and Mockingbird in 1964. It’s gone now (as is that UNBELIEVABLY FANTASTIC ANIMATED NEON SIGN that made me look forward to nighttime drives to Love Field). All that remains is the small syrup plant (from 1948?). (…I think it’s a syrup plant. Or a warehouse. Or something syrup-related.)
The new plant opened in June 1964. The building had floor-to-ceiling glass — I’ve read reminiscences of people who remember driving by and seeing the work going on through those huge windows. I don’t know if there was bottling work going on after dark, but here’s a grainy photo from a Dallas Power & Light ad that shows the building at night, lit up like a stage.
Dallas Power & Light ad (det), June 1964
Speaking of which, The Dallas Morning News wrote this:
The bottling room, which fronts on Lemmon, has a glass front 254 feet long and 26 feet high to provide a view of the bottling process to the passing public. (DMN, June 9, 1964)
Free show!
The woman featured in an Employers National Life Group Insurance Company ad (below), might be the same woman seen in the photo at the top. Manning her station.
Employers National Life ad (det), June 1964
And what was rolling off the automated line? Coke, Sprite, and Tab. And something called Mission (grape and orange drinks). 1,860 bottles a minute (!).
Back to the sign for a second. I haven’t invested a LOT of time in a search (but *kind of* a lot…), but I have been unable to find footage of that truly wonderful, mesmerizing neon Coca-Cola sign. Living in an age of Instagram and YouTube, we just expect to find this sort of thing quickly, without having to set aside large chunks of time to devote to searching. If YOU know where film/video of that sign might be hiding… SPEAK UP!
A couple of shots of the exterior:
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Sources & Notes
Top photo and last two photos are all by John Rogers and were probably taken around the time the plant began operation in mid-1964; all are from the John Rogers and Georgette de Bruchard Collection, UNT Libraries Special Collections, via the Portal to Texas History, here, here, and here.
A shorter version of this post previously appeared on the Flashback Dallas Patreon page in November 2023.
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Copyright © 2024 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
You are too young to remember I suspect, but once upon a time Coca Cola bottling plants were generally organized along these lines, with so that the passersby could marvel at the whole parade of high tech and cleanliness.
This one seems to be so grand it’s on an entirely different scale compared to the typical facilities. Even the rather modest bottling plant in Pittsburg (Texas!) followed this formula. The erstwhile Coca Cola plant in Austin, on West 6th Street, is now a furniture store, I think.
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Paula, in addition to the small plants mentioned by Anon, there is one in downtown Glen Rose that is currently a delizioso Italian restaurant. The interior of the restaurant has photos of the old Coca Cola bottling plant around the perimeter. If you’re looking for a quick road trip, that would be a yummy one.
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Thanks! Sounds great!
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This whole stretch of Lemmon was chock full of fabulous Mi-Mod Industrial Architecture, and I include the still standing Coca-Cola plant that’s more Art Deco.
The Hagger clothing building that was razed for the Lowes or Mercedes Park Place ( I forget the exact location) was another VERY SAD loss.
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