Coca-Cola museum turns one
The Polk County Historical Society got to take a look around the year old Cedartown Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia on June 27. The museum turned 1 on June 25.
If you've seen a out-of-town license plate in Polk County, chances are it was in downtown Cedartown.
That's because the Cedartown Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia - one of Northwest Georgia's most alluring tourist attractions-has been nestled neatly at 209 Main Street for an entire year now.
The museum is so alluring in fact that visitors from over 26 states and 6 different countries have ventured to Cedartown to for a tour of the collection.
And this week, some special guests will also be coming to the museum to share it's treasures with the world-at-large, as Fox 5 brings their morning show over for a live broadcast from downtown Cedartown.
The memorabilia doesn't simply tell the history of Coca-Cola, the variety of bottles, trucks and Coca- Cola themed- products throughout the decades of the company's history lends each item a story that makes up a greater tale both locally and globally.
Cedartown's premiere collection of memorabilia first started as a family hobby by the Morris' now gives a glimpse into how the Georgia-born soft drink played a role in the development of Polk County and small towns like it from the 1980s through contemporary times. The building itself is part of that tale, having been the former home to Cedartown's Coca-Cola bottling plant.
Last week on Tuesday, Director of Acquisitions Daniel Morris commemorated the anniversary of the museum's first year in business with a speech that highlighted the past, present, and future of Cedartown's connection with
Coca-Cola.
The museum is already a authoritative archive for the company in private hands, but Morris presented a list of rare and attention- drawing items the museum hopes to acquire in the years to come.
At the Tuesday meeting at the museum on June 27, the Morris' also told the Polk County Historical Society members they're considering having the elusive "Cedartown Botting Co." sign remade to give the building a nostalgic glow that will ensure no one passes the building without stopping.
The only evidence of the neon double sided sign existing is in an old photograph and the sign's current whereabouts are unknown.
There also exists a set of rare coca-cola bottles the museum hopes to acquire. There exist only 6 of these bottles, and all 6 are owned by 2 individuals. This does mean, however, that the museum knows where the bottles are.
I f possible, Morris would like a fully functional soda fountain inside of the museum.
In regards to present, the memorabilia museum recently put on display a collection of diamond themed coke bottles that were in circulation from 1959 to 1969. The collection is over 200 lots and is stored inside 1920's store cabinets.
Another impressive, newly acquired piece is a Tiffany style leaded glass globe. The globe dates from 1907-1915 and there are only 10 of these globes known to exist.
Hanging above the museum's mahogany soda fountain is a 1920's cocacola lamp shade. The lamp shade is done in a Tiffany style and is considered hard to acquire by collectors because of their frailty. While the World of Coke in Atlanta only has one of these lamp shades, the Cedartown Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia has three.
The work of Haddon Sundblom - the artist behind the Coca-Cola's two iconic ad campaigns Santa Claus and Sprite Boy - is displayed proudly in the museum. The museum managed to acquire an original oil painting by the artist that was used in a 1946 coke calendar.
The Cedartown Memorabilia Museum is locat- ed inside one of two of the original remaining bottling plants. The plant was shut down in the 1970's and later became a lumber company before once again returning to it s vacant state. The building was nearly bulldozed, but is now open as a museum after nearly 40 years of emptiness.