Georgia Magazine - December 2023 - 28

Around GEORGIA By Katie Teems Norris
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Explore Georgia's unique
estled throughout Georgia's charming cities and small
towns are museums that highlight the state's rich
history, industry and culture. Visitors will find unique
items, each with its own story to tell.
Museums are immersive educational experiences waiting
to be explored. Join us on a journey off the beaten path through
Georgia's museum landscape.
Cedartown Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia,
Cedartown; (678) 901-0245; cedartowncokemuseum.org
Dan Morris, collector in chief at the Cedartown Museum
of Coca-Cola Memorabilia, started collecting at 12 years old,
inspired by trips with his grandmother to Moores
Soda Fountain, a Cedartown diner that sold
Coca-Cola memorabilia.
In 2013, an old Coca-Cola bottling
facility that had stopped operating in the
1970s went up for sale.
" We bought the building and then
over the next couple of years renovated
it and turned it into what it is today, "
he says.
When visitors walk through the
door, they see a 1920s mahogany soda
fountain, which came from a pub in
museums off the beaten path
London, as well as Coca-Cola leaded-glass globes on top of
syrup dispensers.
" You can get a glass-bottle Coke out of a 1957 vending
machine that works, " Morris says.
Most visitors can expect to spend one to two hours at the
museum, but Coca-Cola enthusiasts can spend a whole day
exploring " the biggest publicly displayed collection of
Coca-Cola memorabilia in the country, " Morris says.
The museum is laid out chronologically from the 1880s to
the 1960s, showing the " evolution of Coca-Cola marketing, " he
says. Coca-Cola corporate teams and the Coca-Cola Collectors
Club have visited the museum.
Morris, who describes his career as " antique
advertising specialist, " purchases new items each
week. The rarest item in the museum is also
one that many visitors overlook: a leadedglass
Coca-Cola bottle. Morris says there
are no more than 10 of these bottles
known to exist.
" They were made in the 1920s,
and they were expensive to produce, "
he says.
More information about the
museum, including how to support it
through donations, is on the website.
Miles Through Time, Clarkesville;
(470) 239-0199; milesthroughtime.com
" I've always been into cars, " says Sean Mathis,
Miles Through Time automotive museum founder.
Mathis' grandfather owned a 1959 Cadillac
Coupe DeVille. This iconic car now belongs to
Mathis, who spent 10 years trying to buy it from his
grandmother.
After taking the Cadillac to car shows, Mathis
says he wanted to keep the car in a facility the
public could visit. In 2017 a real estate agent showed
Mathis an old car dealership in Toccoa. The former
dealership became Miles Through Time's first
home before the museum relocated to the Old
Clarkesville Mill.
The museum's three galleries house Model T
Above and inset: The Cedartown Museum of Coca-Cola
Memorabilia has the nation's largest public display of
Coca-Cola memorabilia, according to founder Dan Morris.
28 Georgia Magazine December 2023
Fords, Franklin Mint and Danbury Mint model cars,
and a replica of the first Phillips 66 filling station.
There are muscle cars, Studebakers and a DeLorean
that Mathis restored.
CEDARTOWN MUSEUM OF COCA-COLA MEMORABILIA
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http://www.cedartowncokemuseum.org http://www.milesthroughtime.com
Georgia Magazine - December 2023

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