City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Description: Make no mistake: When you’re in Atlanta, you’re in Coca-Cola country. The world’s most popular soft drink was invented here, and it was all the rage in Atlanta before it was available anywhere else. You can easily create your own Coke-centric tour by just paying attention to its history. Over the years the company’s leaders, especially founder Asa G. Candler and longtime president Robert West Woodruff, poured money into worthy Atlanta institutions (most notably Emory University), often through generous but anonymous gifts. Coca-Cola was invented by Dr. John S. Pemberton in his home, which stood at 107 Marietta St. It was first served to a thirsty world in May 1886 at Jacobs’ Pharmacy, 2 Marietta St. The recipe for Coke’s top-secret essence, code-named Merchandise 7X, is kept under lock and key in a vault in the SunTrust Bank building, Park Place at Auburn Avenue. The nearby 17-story Candler Building, Peachtree Street at Dobbs Avenue, was once home to Coke’s executive offices. An architectural marvel when new, the Candler Building has been grandly restored. Coca-Cola’s world headquarters building towers over Midtown at 1 Coca-Cola Plaza on the corner of North Avenue and Luckie Street. Just down the street is The Varsity, North Avenue at Spring Street, the world’s largest drive-in and predictably the world’s largest retail user of Coca-Cola syrup. May Heaven protect you should you ask for that “other” cola drink here. Inman Park, Atlanta’s first suburb, was home to Coke’s founder, Asa Candler, from 1903 to 1916. His redbrick mansion, now a private residence, stands on the corner of Euclid Avenue and Elizabeth Street and was named Callan Castle after the family’s ancestral home in Ireland. Near the Virginia-Highland area, Candler’s eldest son, Howard, built the magnificent Gothic-Tudor mansion Callanwolde at 980 Briarcliff Rd.; today it’s a fine arts center maintained by DeKalb County. Asa Griggs Candler Jr.’s home at 1260 Briarcliff Rd. is now part of the Georgia Mental Health Institute. Lullwater House, 1463 Clifton Rd. NE, built in 1925 for Candler’s son, Walter Turner Candler, has been the residence of Emory University’s presidents since 1963. St. John’s Melkite Catholic Church, 1428 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, is another former home of Asa Candler. Atlanta’s loyalty to the Coca-Cola tradition is steadfast. Remember the backlash against that all-but-forgotten marketing disaster, New Coke? When company executives rolled out the “new, improved taste” in a flashy downtown celebration at Woodruff Park on April 23, 1985, the crowd included lifelong Atlanta Coke consumers who—in front of the world’s media—poured bottles of the new, sweeter drink onto the street. Less than three months later, with Coke drinkers around the country still clamoring for their old favorite, the corporation acquiesced and returned the original formula to the market as Coca-Cola Classic. If you’ll settle for nothing less than being fully awash in a river of Coca-Cola history, images, and lore, go directly to the World of Coca-Cola.