HILLSBORO BOTTLING COMPANY / HILLSBORO COCA-COLA BOTTLING COMPANY / PREMIER ROLLER SHOP
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- Fri, 03/10/2023 - 9:45am by SteveR
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In early 1915 the Noxall Bottling Works was dissolved as a business and became the Hillsboro Bottling Company, with Abner B. Fitch (of Fitch Lumber fame) as its proprietor. Why did the company change hands at this time? There are many possible factors, from bottle production methods (semi-automatic bottle-making machines were becoming commonplace amongst bottle-making companies, which made bottles much more cheaply available to beverage bottlers) to government regulations (i.e. the Gould Amendment to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which stated that the volume or quantity of the contents of a container be "...plainly and conspicuously marked on the outside of the package...") to money and/or business relationships. I feel that the business partners of Noxall (J. Zeb Waller, Landres M. Squires, and William M. Miles) were likely offered good money for their company and that they wanted to move onto other things (Squires, for instance, soon started the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Works in Burlington).
After 1900, Coca-Cola started to get serious regarding its identity in the growing soda market: In 1906, Coca-Cola began successfully suing competing beverage brands that had similar names and/or used the term "cola" in their name and/or had a similar logo, and in 1916 a new style of bottle was introduced, as it was felt that the straight-sided bottle Coca-Cola bottlers were using was easily confused with competitors and imitators (this "new style" of bottle is virtually the same highly-recognizable style of trademarked bottle that Coca-Cola uses today). In October 1918, Coca-Cola sued the Old Dominion Beverage Corporation and lost; the court's decision was appealed in March 1921. The 1918 decision was reversed, and the Old Dominion Beverage Corporation/Taka-Kola Bottling Company had to cease use of the Taka-Kola name and brand. The Hillsboro Bottling Company must have seen the writing on the wall (and/or was pressured by Coca-Cola) and in 1920 it decided to only bottle Coca-Cola as its main cola product line.
1916 postcard showing the interior of a similar bottling works (the Chero-Cola Bottling Company, Winston-Salem)
The Hillsborough bottling works building, 1920s (image courtesy of Cone Mills Corporation via the Orange County Historical Museum)
1924 Sanborn map excerpt showing the Hillsborough bottling works building
1943 Sanborn map excerpt showing the former bottling works building as a "textile roller shop"
The former bottling works building, circa 1950 (image courtesy of Cone Mills Corporation via the Orange County Historical Museum)
1920s stationery header
The former Hillsborough bottling works building site, circa 1970 photo (image courtesy of Cone Mills Corporation via the Orange County Historical Museum)
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