On the side of the old Young Brothers Pharmacy building at the corner of West Main and Erwin Streets, a hand-painted Coca-Cola advertisement that dates to 1894 — the oldest outdoor Coca-Cola sign known to exist. The pharmacy itself was the first to bottle and sell Coca-Cola in Cartersville. The building still stands and the sign is visible from the street; a small plaque explains the history. Five minutes, but a genuinely interesting fragment of American commercial history.
World's First Outdoor Coca-Cola Sign
A story
The hand-painted Coca-Cola wall sign on the side of the old Young Brothers Pharmacy was painted in 1894, less than a decade after John Pemberton invented the drink in Atlanta, and is generally accepted as the oldest surviving outdoor Coca-Cola advertisement anywhere in the world. It has been touched up and repainted several times — the most recent restoration in 1989 — but the location and design are original.