Vernors Ginger Ale 150th B-Day

[SODAPOPBOB]

Most of the Vernor histories I've read lead me to believe that James Vernor had a full-fledged soda fountain at his 235 Woodward Avenue drug store and that it had a counter-top and stools and was your typical 1800s style of soda fountain. Now, I'm not saying this is a myth, but I am saying I cannot find any published documents between 1866 and 1896 to support it. Even the 1884 newspaper article I posted that says "J. S. Vernor sold 1,500 glasses of ginger ale" is a little vague. The reason I say this is because its easy to assume the 1,500 glasses of ginger ale were served from a counter-type soda fountain, and I would agree with this myself if it wasn't for my steadfast opinion that assumptions don't necessarily confirm the existence of such a fountain. Before continuing, let's consider those 1,500 glasses of ginger ale for a moment. There are 720 minutes in 12 hours, which means if the Vernor drug store was open for 12 hours on that particular day, they would have had to serve a glass of ginger ale about every 30 seconds in order to serve 1,500 glasses in 12 hours. Even if Vernor's was open for 24 hours on that particular day, that's still about one glass of ginger ale every minute around the clock. For those who might be thinking that James Vernor had numerous employees serving the ginger ale, that too is an assumption that would need to be verified in order to set the record straight!

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Even though I'm having difficulty confirming the existence of a soda fountain at James Vernor's drug store at 235 Woodward Avenue between 1866 and 1896, there is ample evidence for what was referred to as a "Vernor's Ginger Ale Outfit." I have not been able to narrow down exactly when those so called 'outfits' were first introduced, but I do know they were available at least as early as 1895, which I will show you shortly.

But first, please open this link to Keith Wunderlich's book where he shows an image of one of the 'outfits' that he describes as having come from an old brochure. Unfortunately, he does not date it, but it appears to be genuine ...

Note: In Keith Wunderlich's book also notice the 1914 picture described as the 33 Woodward Avenue soda fountain and what might be two of those 'outfits' on the right side. It even appears that a clerk is filling a glass from one of them. Again, I'm not certain those are Vernor's Ginger Ale 'outfits' I'm just saying they might be!

https://books.google.com/books?id=X...AF#v=onepage&q=James Vernor Apparatus&f=false

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Next up is the earliest reference I have been able to find so far regarding one of James Vernor's so called 'outfits'

from ...

The Pharmaceutical Era ~ May 9, 1895

Notice on the link article where it says "his new scheme"

https://books.google.com/books?id=d...#v=onepage&q=vernor ginger ale outfit&f=false

Note: Google Books often only allows portions of an article to be saved, such as this partial snippet of the entire article ...

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

More references for Vernor's 'Outfits' ...

This first reference is questionable, but because it says "The novel way in which it is served" and "system" I thought I'd share it anyway.

Detroit Free Press ~ August 20, 1901



Detroit Free Press ~ May 20, 1902



Detroit Free Press ~ September 3, 1905

Notice the word 'plant' instead of 'outfit'

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Here's a sampling of various establishments that sold Vernor's Ginger Ale on draught or in the form of an extract. I don't know if the draught examples were dispensed from one of James Vernor's 'outfits' or from some other type of fountain apparatus. I selected these particular examples because they are pre-1896, which is when James Vernor and his son relocated to 33 Woodward Avenue. Another reason I selected these particular examples is to illustrate how abundant such references were for Vernor's Ginger Ale during the late 1800s. That is, they are abundant for sales of Vernor's Ginger Ale by other merchants, but not so abundant by ginger ale sold by James Vernor himself. In other words, there are very few ads during this same time period that were published by James Vernor himself, but lots of ads published by various other merchants.

All of the following are from the Detroit Free Press newspaper ...

June 2, 1885



June 4, 1887



July 2, 1893



1894 (I forgot to write in the exact day/month)



June 23, 1895

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

When I said "very few" Vernor's Ginger Ale ads between 1885 and 1895, what I actually meant was very few "different" ads. The reason I say this is because this identical word-for-word ad appeared at least 30 times during the summer of 1894. And to be more specific, this identical ad only appeared between June 23, 1894 and July 31, 1894. But even with that said, the ad is a little confusing because even though it has James Vernor's name and 235 Woodward Avenue address on it, it also says ...

"your grocer keeps the extract"

So I'm not sure if James Vernor also sold the extract or if the only place you could get it was at a grocer.

1894

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

In other words ...

Any and all of the accounts that refer to a soda fountain at 235 Woodward Avenue might be referring to some type of portable fountain such as those called an "Outfit" and not necessarily a full-fledged soda fountain with a marble counter and stools.

Regarding the 1,500 glasses of ginger ale again ...

Although unconfirmed, I have seen tid-bits of clues that hint at the Vernor's Ginger Ale Outfits as holding about 15 gallons of liquid. And if you do the math, we find ...

1. 15 gallons of liquid equal 1,920 ounces

2. If a serving of ginger ale was 12 ounces, then there would have been about 160 servings per each 15 gallon "Outfit"

3. Five individual "Outfits" held a combined total of about 800 servings

4. Ten individual "Outfits" held a combined total of about 1,600 servings

Which would have been totally doable in a single day if they had enough outfits and/or kept replenishing the ones they did have!

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

In search of ...

Exactly when James Vernor first introduced his "Vernor's Ginger Ale Outfit"

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Note: I take back parts of what I said in this earlier post. Its too vague and does not confirm that Vernor's Ginger Ale was available at the time. Nor does it confirm that Vernor & L'Hommedieu operated a soda fountain. Just because they sold a used fountain apparatus doesn't mean it was used by them. Please know that I'm not trying to be obstinate, but I do feel that such assumptions are not necessarily based on facts. And we all know what they say about "assume / assumptions"

Note: I'm starting to do exactly what I did not intend, and that's to try and place every piece of the Vernor's puzzle together, when what I really had in mind was to only focus on two primary aspects, which are ...

1. The 1866 date.
2. The 219 and 235 Woodward Avenue addresses.

So with that said, I'm going back to my original plan and only focus on those two basic aspects. I will leave it for others to try and figure out the rest of it, such as where James Vernor moved to and when, which is just as, if not more confusing than his early years between about 1866 and 1870.

Which brings us to this advertisement from ...

The Detroit Free Press ~ April 7, 1868

View attachment 172894

Notice:

1. Vernor & L'Hommedieu
2. 219 Woodward Avenue

3. Where it says ...

"Been in use but ten days"

This is a pretty vague reference connecting Vernor & L'Hommedieu with anything "soda fountain" related, but because it indicates the fountain was "used," it leads me to suspect they used it to dispense ginger ale, and possibly other fountain beverages.

Here's what I found regarding "Arctic Soda Fountains." (Of course there were other Arctic models, and I can't say for certain which model was being sold by Vernor & L'Hommedieu in the 1868 ad).

http://www.hagley.org/librarynews/quenching-thirst-knowledge-about-soda-water

View attachment 172895

View attachment 172896

 

[hemihampton]

Pic of another Outfit. LEON.