Curious about Front Royal, VA and its 7-up Bottling Plant? Any help please?

[GeorgePMR]

Hi just started collecting bottles from my hometown of Front Royal, VA. I got one now off ebay (Nu-Icy) and I'm hooked, not sure if this is pc but filled it with mountain dew and found a nos cap and bottled it for display! I'm going to lite it underneath later.

But I was trying to find out about the 7-up bottling plant in Front Royal and there's literally nothing on the internet about it? Apparently the Front Royal Coke bottle is really rare (Scarce +) all that's left is the Coca-Cola sign in town still looking good!

Here's an older pic of the sign...

 

[GeorgePMR]

Here's what it looks like today (Google Maps)

 

[GeorgePMR]

 

[GeorgePMR]

Well I finally found a Coke bottle last weekend from Front Royal here. In pretty good shape. The bottle is from 1916-1928 and marked Pat 'D Nov 16, 1915.

 

[GeorgePMR]

And found a little more information on the bottling plant here in town.

 

[GeorgePMR]

Well this is where I'm at now, I've found 4 Front Royal Bottles so far. The first one I randomly picked up in an antiques store after searching for over 12 years. That's the one shown above. Went to Bill Porter's house and obtained a David Lyon '26 Graham in mint condition, and a '25 in near mint condition as well. Had a blast meting Bill and seeing his impressive collection with variants that will make your head explode! Great making a new friend. Learned so much about the hobby from him, a lot of information that is not easily found on the interbews. Just purchased another off flebay for $20 and almost got a traffic ticket driving to go get it, the kind Officer let me off with a warning thankfully. I had a FroRo bottle cap but gave up on ever finding a bottle and lost it to my Brothers abyss of a home...were looking for it. lol Also reached out to the Warren County Heritage Society to help find out more information on this FroRo bottling plant that supposedly burnt down in the late 20's. As far as I can tell it only Bottled Hobbleskirts 1915's and 1923 Christmas Cokes.

 

[GeorgePMR]

David Lyon's Bottle tags and the tiny brighter one is Bill's. The wire rack is pretty rare, it reminds me of the Andy Warhol 3 Cokes print. I painted it and added soft red Velcro strips (loops side) on the inside to cushion them so it wouldn't scratch the bottles for display.

 

[hemihampton]

What's a David Lyons 26 Grimes????????????

 

[GeorgePMR]

What's a David Lyons 26 Grimes????????????

Sorry typo Graham is the bottle manufacture dated 1926. David Lyon was a large collector of Coke bottles here's a killer article about him and Bill Porter.

 

[hemihampton]

Interesting Article, Thanks, Leon.