Austin Bottling Works, Inc. was founded in 1924 by George Wilson and his father-in-law Dr. Charles F. Lewis. Wilson was a Scottish immigrant who worked in sales for Geo. A Hormel & Co. in Texas and Alabama before coming to Austin. Wilson married Marjorie Lewis, daughter of one of the founders of the Austin Medical Clinic.
The first plant was located at 400 Second St. N.E. By 1930, the plant moved to 403 Fourth Ave. N.E. (near the old downtown utility plant). The business focused on bottling and sales of soft drinks and the sales of fountain supplies such as extracts, cider, crushed fruit and cleaning supplies. In 1949, a new plant was built at 1600 First Ave. N.E. (across from East Side Lake).
Back in the 1920s, Coca-Cola was less popular and, according to Wilson family legend, George Wilson would slip a bottle into a case of more popular grape, cherry or orange flavored sodas to build exposure to the product. George's sons, James and Charles took over the family business and it remained a a pillar of the community for decades. Changing with the times, the bottling company eventually became a distributor and dropped bottling several years before it was sold in 2002.
