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