Coca Cola signs in Texas. (original) (raw)

Collectors of Coca Cola memorabilia have been known to go to great lengths to add to their collections, but they haven't yet figured out how to strip the paint off walls. There is no doubt, someone, somewhere who has even moved into a former Coca-Cola bottling works. Texas has by far the greatest number of these former plants than any other state. Many are still vacant awaiting buyers. Monahans, Marshall, Beeville, and Cuero are a few that we've seen for sale. Many others have been bulldozed into parking lots.

Many of the hand painted signs that once advertised the drink have been (with varying degrees of skill) repainted in small towns all around Texas. The simple charm of the signs strikes a chord with people of a particular age.

The once standard 61/2 ounce bottle of coke used to be embossed at the bottom with the name of the local bottler. It would be interesting to know the reason behind this extra effort. Surely there wasn't an attempt to keep them within districts.

Abilene, Amarillo, Baytown, Beeville, Beaumont, Brownsville, Coleman, Corpus Christi, Cuero, Del Rio, Denton, Eastland, El Paso, Fort Worth, Galveston, Goliad, Henderson, Houston, Huntsville, Laredo, Lufkin, Marshall, Monahans, Nacogdoches, Ozona, Paris, Pecos, Quannah, San Angelo, San Antonio, Tyler, Uvalde, and Victoria are Texas towns that once had their own local bottling works.

In this section we include images of Coca-Cola signs that are painted on small town walls, or in some cases, images of the bottling plants themselves. Some of the signs are "ghost signs" meaning faded but original work. Others are reproductions painted on top of former signs.

Readers are invited to send in signs from towns that we've missed or haven't yet found.

� John Troesser

Coca-Cola

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