Coca-Cola mural welcomed back to downtown Wetumpka

The red and white logo of Coca-Cola has been recognizable worldwide for decades. But it was more of a regional brand back in 1903 when the Montgomery Coca-Cola Bottling Company was opened by Crawford Jackson just down the road to begin bottling the soda.

A few years later the company put up a handpainted billboard on the building now owned by the Grier family and Frank Bertarelli. Last week a new mural came to life reminiscent of the days gone by. Local historians such as Janice Wharton and Dennis Fain don’t remember the billboard. Fain wandered downtown streets as a child as his family operated the Fain Theater.