Biedenharn Museum & Gardens

Joseph Biedenharn bottled Coca-Cola in Monroe in 1894, three years before the Coca-Cola Company opened its own bottling operation. The original equipment that made it happen—the machinery that first transferred the soda fountain drink into glass bottles for transport and resale—is on display in a 1914 Colonial Revival home at 2000 Riverside Drive. The house is furnished as it would have been when the Biedenharn family lived in it. Four acres of formal gardens designed in the 1920s surround the property. A Bible Museum wing holds rare editions. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. What you're standing in front of is the proof that a regional bottler, working out of Monroe, figured out the logistics of portability before the parent company did—and the equipment that did the work is still here.