Greenville Pepsi-Cola Bottling Plant
National Register Listing
Street Address:
705 Poinsett Highway, Greenville vicinity (Greenville County)
NRHP Nomination Form
Record Number:
S10817723095
Description and Narrative:
The Greenville Pepsi-Cola Bottling Plant is locally significant in Industry as one of the largest and most successful bottling works in Greenville, South Carolina during the mid-twentieth century. Located at 705 Poinsett Highway, the facility includes three buildings and a parking lot built between 1940 and circa 1965. The soft drink industry during this period had a local-market manufacturing model, where national brands like Pepsi-Cola appointed local manufacturers to create, bottle, and distribute their products. The Greenville bottling location helped grow and maintain Pepsi-Cola's number two spot in the soft drink industry in the U.S., and the Greenville Pepsi-Cola Bottling Plant is a local example of a highly successful bottling operation. While early 20th century bottling works were located downtown, improved automobile transportation allowed for facilities such as the Greenville Pepsi-Cola Bottling Plant to be constructed on the outskirts of the city, where there was more room for expansion. The plant thrived in its location along a major local industrial thoroughfare, and the physical plant expanded several times in the 1950s and 1960s. The growth and success of the bottling plant was due in part to the efforts of its owner, Thomas S. Hartness, who brought innovative packaging operations and marketing strategies to his Greenville plant, some of which were later adopted nationally. By 1965, the Greenville Pepsi-Cola Bottling Plant was the largest soft drink manufacturer in Greenville and employed over a hundred people. The period of significance runs the plant's 1940 opening to 1968 when it was replaced by a new plant further north on State Park Rd. Listed in the National Register September 21, 2023.
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Industry
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
2023-09-21
Date of Boundary Increase:
No Boundary Increase
County:
Greenville County;Greenville City
