The Coca-Cola Bottling Plant is a historic manufacturing facility in the Evanston neighborhood of

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. Constructed in the 1930s in high

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

style, it no longer produces beverages, but has been named a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

. Around 2001,

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 studen ...

purchased the building and converted it into the Alumni Center, a building holding the Xavier University National Alumni Association, Community Building Institute, Human Resources,

Physical Plant Physical plant, mechanical plant or industrial plant (and where context is given, often just plant) refers to the necessary infrastructure used in operation and maintenance of a given facility. The operation of these facilities, or the department ...

department, and Office of University Communications.

Bottling plant

The

Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups ...

ordered construction of the present building in the Evanston neighborhood during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

,''Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors''. ''

American Guide Series The American Guide Series includes books and pamphlets published from 1937 to 1941 under the auspices of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), a Depression-era program that was part of the larger Works Progress Administration in the United States. T ...

''.

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

: Wiesen-Hart, 1943, 316. It was completed in 1938. The designer was John H. Deekin, a Cincinnati architect. It is one of his most significant surviving structures.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1.

St. Clair Shores St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake St. Clair in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of downtown Detroit. Its population was 59,715 at the 2010 ...

: Somerset, 1999, 580. The plant was built largely of

Indiana Limestone Indiana limestone — also known as Bedford limestone in the building trade — has long been an economically important building material, particularly for monumental public structures. Indiana limestone is a more common term for Salem Limestone, ...

with substantial amounts of

glass block Glass brick, also known as glass block, is an architectural element made from glass. The appearance of glass blocks can vary in color, size, texture and form. Glass bricks provide visual obscuration while admitting light. The modern glass block w ...

, and smaller amounts of metal are also present. Although the facade is two stories tall, the main manufacturing section is just one story; a

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

underlies much of the building. Some of the architecture, including the little-changed lobby, employs

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

details. In conjunction with the general Streamline Moderne appearance, the Art Deco features emphasize a sense of

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

with few parallels in the Cincinnati area, especially because the style's application to an industrial facility was unusual. The company promoted its use of highly mechanized production equipment at this facility; its ability to produce 500 bottles each minute was highly touted.

Post-bottling

Coca-Cola no longer employs the building for beverage production. It was later converted for the use of F&W Publications, and then

acquired the property in early 2002. Renovations quickly began, with extra space used for offices and rented to

Cincinnati Country Day School Cincinnati Country Day School (abbreviated CCDS) is a private, coeducational, independent school located in Indian Hill, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. History Cincinnati Country Day School was founded in 1926 and was inspired by the Country Day ...

after one of its buildings collapsed. In June 2004, the university announced that a gift from wealthy alumni would be used to convert the building into an alumni center with space for conferences, banquets, and other types of meetings. Long before that time, the building had been granted recognition by the federal government: while still a manufacturing facility, it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

because of its historically significant architecture. Hundreds of locations in Cincinnati are listed on the National Register, but the bottling plant's status was exceptional due to its young age; it was only about forty years old when designated, and buildings younger than fifty years old can only qualify for designation in the most exceptional circumstances. The building currently holds the Xavier University National Alumni Association, Community Building Institute, Human Resources,

department, and Office of University Communications.

References

External links

Alumni Center website
{{authority control Industrial buildings completed in 1938 Coca-Cola buildings and structures Manufacturing plants in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati Office buildings in Cincinnati Streamline Moderne architecture in the United States Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Xavier University 1938 establishments in Ohio

Bottling plant

Post-bottling

See also

References

External links