Schmidt Coca-Cola Museum

Friday we drove up to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to see the popular Coke museum. Frederick Schmidt opened one of the first Coca-Cola bottling plants in the country in 1901. Later he divided his franchise among his three sons. The Elizabethtown plant enjoyed four generations of Schmidt ownership until it closed in 1999. The museum was started in 1977 and today contains over 80,000 pieces.

The side of the building is pretty neat…a fist pushing out of the building holding a Coke bottle.

 

 

When you walk into the museum proper, there are two long aisles with exhibits in glass cases along both sides of the two aisles.

 

 

Mainly the museum contains various advertising media, bottles and Coke machines.

I picked up a postcard for my friends, Naomi, of a marble soda fountain from the 1800s, that I thought she’d enjoy.  When I was paying for it the clerk ask, “would you like to see the real thing?”. Well, yes, of course!!!  Here it is.
It was all marble and was made for the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair. They have it in a side room reserved for private parties. The fountain is not used but is imposing in the room.

 

This plaque sets on the front right side.

 

 

In the same room is a very tall “Coke bottle of Coke bottles”, so to speak.  Note the one, lone filled bottle on the bottom row.  It was one of the last bottles filled at the bottling plant in 1999.

 

This was a very interesting museum and well worth the trip to Elizabethtown…oh, yea, the movie “E-Town” with Kirsten Dunst WAS partly filmed here.  Locals refer to Elizabethtown as E-town.

I was finally able to get my fill on salad by having lunch at Golden Corral. This was the cleanest and friendliest Golden Corral we’ve ever been in.  The food was fresh and very tasty also. Mama always said to “let people have their flowers while they are still alive”, so I did compliment the manager.

Remember, you are loved.