Rubush And Hunter, the city’s premier architectural firm of the interwar years, designed numerous bottling plants throughout the state for Coca-Cola in the 1920s and 1930s. For the capital city, they created one like no other—a frothy white terra cotta-clad building lavishly ornamented with geometric fountains and flowers located at 901 North Carrollton.

A multi-story art deco factory building.
Eastern facade of the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant, located at 850 Massachusetts Avenue, ca. 1980 Credit: City of Indianapolis, Department of Metropolitan Development, Indiana Historical Society View Source

The William P. Jungclaus Company built the plant in 1931. After subsequent additions northeastward in the 1940s, it became the largest Coca-Cola bottling plant in the world. The two-story trapezoidal building fronted on the 800 block of Massachusetts Avenue. The original main entrance opened into a lavish two-story lobby featuring a circular stair, terrazzo floor, and brass-medallioned ceiling. 

The entrance on the southwest corner of the building at Massachusetts and Carrollton (formerly Ashland) once led into the former receiving room, with its long marble-topped counter and bright polychrome mosaics. Even the factory portion of the interior featured Art Deco details on stair rails and doorknobs. Immediately southwest of the main building stood the one-story garage, also built in 1931 and only slightly less ornate than its companion.

Hallway with art deco-style tiled walls.
Visitors lobby of Coca-Cola Bottling Plant before renovation for reuse as the lobby of the Bottleworks Hotel, ca. 2000s Credit: Jackie Swihart View Source

In 1968, Coca-Cola sold the building to the Indianapolis Public School system, which used it to house the IPS Service Center. After nearly a half-century, the building exchanged hands once again. In 2017, the building was purchased by Hendricks Commercial Properties and a year later construction began, turning the plant and its 12-acre site into a mixed-use development center called the Bottleworks District.

Revised July 2021
 

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