The Pemberton House, 11 Seventh Street

The Pemberton House is a Victorian cottage with elements of Greek-Revival which was occupied by Dr. John Stith Pemberton and his family from 1855-1860. Dr. Pemberton, a pharmacist in Columbus and later Atlanta, was the originator of the formula for Coca-Cola. John Stith Pemberton was born in Knoxville, Georgia in 1833. He attended public school in Rome, Georgia where his family resided for years. In 1850, he completed his medicine and pharmacy training from the Reform Medical College of Georgia in Macon at the age of nineteen. In 1853, he came to Columbus and married a local girl - Ann Eliza Clifford Lewis. It is likely that he met his wife while in Macon. All the Lewis girls attended Wesleyan College in Macon.

Their only child Charles was born the year following their marriage. On November 20, 1855, the twenty-two year old pharmacist obtained property at 1017 Third Avenue for the sum of $1,950. This then is the first purchased home in which Dr. Pemberton lived. As a memorial to Dr. Pemberton the Coca-Cola Company gave this house, his "downtown home," to the Historic Columbus Foundation in 1969. HCF moved it to this address and began restoring it with funds donated by "friends of Coca-Cola." A master craftsman has restored this house to the regional style boasted when Dr. Pemberton lived here.

Dr. Pemberton sold this house in 1860 and moved from 3rd Avenue out "into the country" in a house that was located at the corner of 50th Street and 18th Avenue - now at 712 Broadway. The Historic Columbus Foundation moved the house to its present location in the Historic District in 1969.

During the time he lived in this house, he was involved in at least two drug businesses in the vicinity. At one time, Dr. Pemberton also operated a chemical laboratory where he manufactured many medicines, photographic chemicals, hair dye, perfumes and other cosmetics. He was very popular with the ladies for the perfumes he made, especially "Sweet Southern Bouquet."

At the Eagle Drug & Chemical Company, Dr. Pemberton dispensed from his soda fount a number of already manufactured drinks, but he was also known to have prepared and dispensed many of his own concoctions to the delight of his customers. He used his soda fountains as a means of testing for flavor and public acceptance. It is believed that "French Wine of Cocoa" was the forerunner of the now internationally famous Coca-Cola. It was originally a headache cure, as well as serving as a "cure-for-whatever-ails-you tonic."

During the War Between the States, Dr. Pemberton served the Confederacy as a First Lieutenant Calvary Officer. When promoted to Captain, he commanded Pemberton's Calvary under General Joe Wheeler. He was a Lieutenant Colonel when the War ended. Dr. Pemberton and his family moved to Atlanta in 1870. Columbus lacked the railroad network and the access to wider markets available to Atlanta. His move enabled him to personally supervise the analytical and manufacturing laboratories of the firm of Pemberton, Wilson, Taylor and Company, which was formed in 1869. From the time of his arrival in Atlanta until 1888, he established no fewer than 18 different businesses.

In 1886, the city of Atlanta introduced prohibition. This forced Pemberton to drop the reference to alcohol in the name of his beverage. He renamed French Wine of Coca to simply Coca-Cola and marketed it as the ideal "temperance drink." His intention was to retire from active practice and devote his full attention to promoting his coca and kola drinks, which were now making more money in a day than he formerly made in a year. Pemberton, with some moneyed men and other druggists, organized a company to raise capital to market his drinks. Unfortunately, Pemberton died only five months after the petition for incorporation was filed in the Fulton County Superior Court. Asa Candler, one of the moneyed men backing Pemberton, obtained control of the Coca-Cola formula. He became the driving force of the company and took Coca-Cola to new heights.

Dr. Pemberton died in Atlanta on August 16, 1888 at the age of fifty-five and it was reported all the drugstores in Atlanta were closed during the funeral. He is buried in Columbus' historic Linwood Cemetery.

The Pemberton House features an apothecary shop, and it is housed in an original outbuilding, formerly used as the kitchen. It has been carefully furnished to approximate the surroundings in which Dr. Pemberton worked when he was a Columbus pharmacist. Coca-Cola Company mementos, pharmaceutical items, a soda fountain, and advertisements of Dr. Pemberton's are some of the items on display.

History of Dr. Pemberton, Coca-Cola, and the Columbus Connection

Excerpts from Literature on Coca-Cola, Dr. Pemberton, Asa Candler, The Woodruff and Bradley Families

All works cited are found in the collections of Historic Columbus Foundation, Inc. From "The Chronicle of Coca-Cola Since 1886", published by the Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta, Georgia, 1973.

" The pleasant custom of enjoying Coca-Cola is an international language understood by people around the world. The familiar shape of the bottle for Coca-Cola and the script of its trademark are among the most readily recognized symbols known to man.

This worldwide product was originated under modest circumstances in Atlanta, Georgia. It began in 1886 with a pharmacist and druggist, Dr. John S. Pemberton who, according to legend, first produced the syrup for Coca-Cola in a three-legged pot in his backyard. The new product was placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink on May 8, 1886. The first sales on that May day were at Jacobs' Pharmacy in the very heart of downtown Atlanta.

Dr. Pemberton's partner, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name and wrote "Coca-Cola" in the flowing Spencerian script of the day. Yet the first advertising for the product used simple block letters. The first newspaper ad for Coca-Cola appeared on May 29, 1886, in the Atlanta Journal, and invited Atlantans to try "the new and popular soda fountain drink." It also proclaimed that Coca-Cola was "Delicious and Refreshing," a theme that continues to echo today.

Later that year as more soda fountains began to sell the product, identification of the locations became important. Hand painted oilcloth signs reading "Coca-Cola" began appearing, attached to store awnings. Next, the word "Drink" was added to the name to tell passerby that the product was a beverage for soda fountain enjoyment. For the eight months of 1886, sales averaged 13 drinks per day. It was not a very auspicious beginning for a product whose sales by the end of 1972 averaged more than 155,000,000 drinks a day.

During 1886, sales of Coca-Cola for the most part were confined to Atlanta. Not until the next year did Pemberton begin to anticipate a horizon for his product extending beyond the Southern city. Even so, Dr. Pemberton was not destined to fully realize the importance of the beverage he had created. In need of funds because of ill health, he assigned to two Atlanta friends, for $1,200, a two-thirds interest, including the sole right to manufacture the syrup.

Four months before he died on August 16, 1888, Dr. Pemberton and his son, Charles, accepted $500 for all remaining rights to the product. The purchaser was Asa G. Candler, a naive of Villa Rica, Georgia, who had come to Atlanta from Cartersville, Georgia. 15 years previously, with $1.75 in his pocket, Candler thus owned one-third interest in Coca-Cola and became the second personality associated with the still unknown product. He proceeded to but additional rights and acquired complete.

In 1919, a group of investors headed by Ernest Woodruff and W. C. Bradley purchased The Coca-Cola Company for $25 million. The business was reincorporated as a Delaware corporation, and 500,000 shares of its common stock were sold publicly for $40 per share.

Four years later, Robert Winship Woodruff, Ernest Woodruff's son, was elected president of the Company, beginning more than six decades of active leadership in the business. Before joining the soft-drink firm, the 33-year-old Georgian had risen from truck salesman to vice president and general manager of White Motor Company.

The new president put uncommon emphasis on product quality. Mr. Woodruff established a "Quality Drink" campaign using a staff of highly trained servicepeople to encourage and assist fountain outlets in aggressively selling and correctly serving Coca-Cola. And with the assistance of leading bottlers, his management established quality standards for every phase of the bottling operation. Mr. Woodruff saw vast potential for the bottle business, so advertising and marketing support was substantially increased. By the end of 1928, Coca-Cola sales in bottles had for the first time exceeded fountain sales.

Robert Woodruff's leadership through the years took the Coca-Cola business to unrivaled heights of commercial sucess. Merchandising concepts accepted as commonplace today were considered revolutionary when Mr. Woodruff introduced them. The Company pioneered the innovative six-bottle carton in the early 1920s, for example, making it easier for the consumer to take Coca-Cola home. The simple cardboard carton, described as "a home package with a handle of invitation," became one of the industry's most powerful merchandising tools.

In 1929, the carton was joined by another revolutionary advance, the metal, open-top cooler, which made it possible for Coca-Cola to be served ice-cold in retail outlets. The cooler later was improved through mechanical refrigeration and automatic coin control. Factories, offices and many other institutions thus became outlets for on-the-spot refreshment.

Much like the trademarked bottle, a distinctive fountain glass, adopted as standard in 1929, helped advertise Coca-Cola. Still used at many soda fountains, these glasses are visible proof of the timeless popularity of Coca-Cola.

The 1933 Chicago World's Fair marked the introduction of automatic fountain dispensers, in which syrup and carbonated water were mixed as the drink was poured. Soda fountain operators had dispensed Coca-Cola manually since its creation in 1886, and visitors to the fair were amazed to see the attendant pour a drink simply by pulling a handle. By 1937, the automatic dispenser had become an important feature of the fountain and similar "post-mix" outlets. Today, modern fountain technology continues to dispense Company products faster and better than ever before.

Refreshment Knows No Boundaries

Perhaps Mr. Woodruff's greatest contribution was his vision of Coca-Cola as an international product. Working with talented associates, he established the global momentum that eventually carried Coca-Cola to every corner of the world.

In the first two decades of the 20th Century, the international growth of Coca-Cola had been rather haphazard. It began in 1900, when Charles Howard Candler, eldest son of Asa Candler, took a jug of syrup with him on vacation to England. A modest order for five gallons of syrup was mailed back to Atlanta.

The same year, Coca-Cola traveled to Cuba and Puerto Rico, and it wasn't long before the international distribution of syrup began. Through the early 1900s, bottling operations were built in Cuba, Panama, Canada, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. In 1920, a bottling company began operating in France as the first bottler of Coca-Cola on the European continent.

In 1926, Mr. Woodruff committed the Company to organized international expansion by establishing the Foreign Department, which in 1930 became a subsidiary known as The Coca-Cola Export Corporation. By that time, the number of countries with bottling operations had almost quadrupled, and the Company had initiated a partnership with the Olympic Games that transcended cultural boundaries.

Coca-Cola and the Olympic Games began their association in the summer of 1928, when an American freighter arrived in Amsterdam carrying the United States Olympic team and 1,000 cases of Coca-Cola. Forty thousand spectators filled the stadium to witness two firsts: the first lighting of the Olympic flame and the first sale of Coke at an Olympiad. Dressed in caps and coats bearing the Coca-Cola trademark, vendors satisfied the fans' thirst, while outside the stadium, refreshment stands, cafes, restaurants and small shops called "winkles" served Coke in bottles and from soda fountains.

Mr. Woodruff's vision of the international potential of Coca-Cola is still being implemented and refined by the Company, its bottlers and subsidiaries, building the Coca-Cola business into an unparalleled global system for providing a simple moment of pleasure.

Coca Cola and the Second World War

Following an urgent request from General Dwight Eisenhower's base in North Africa, Woodruff set up 64 bottling plants around the world to supply American troops during World War II. Many of these wartime plants were later converted to civilian use, permanently enlarging the bottling system and accelerating the growth of the company's worldwide business.