3-C NECTAR BOTTLING COMPANY

The Columbia Chemical Corporation of Roanoke, VA announced in the June 1920 issue of the American Bottler that they had issued a franchise for a new bottling plant in Graham, VA to bottle their newly introduced brand, 3-C Nectar.(6) The 3-C Nectar Bottling Corporation of Graham, Virginia was incorporated on July 6, 1921, with S. R. Brame, of Roanoke, VA, as President, James B. Hankins as Vice President and General Manager, and M. D. Hinton as Secretary & Treasurer, both of Graham, Va.(3) The company was located on the corner of Wister and Morton Avenues, which is now the corner of Virginia and College Avenues, in what had been the old Graham Hotel building. According to Wythe Hull's "The History of the Marion Bottling Company, Inc" 3-C Nectar was a cola type drink; however, only lasted in Marion, VA about eighteen months before the parent company went bankrupt.(2) If you want to read more about 3-C Nectar, I have a page dedicated to the brand which you can find Here.

A note on the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps claim the company is not in operation as of February 1923.(1) The odd thing is that the company shows up in the 1923 Polk’s City Directory, with Frank H. Forbes listed as manager (1), and the 1923 Beverage Blue Book lists the company as well, with an H. B. Forbes as manager.(5) One thing is certain the equipment from the company was sold to a Mr. Lewis, and shipped to Honaker, VA in May 1925.(4) This article also mentions two names that I haven’t seen associated with this company as the “former owners of the plant”, Claud Harman and Ned Morris, who sold the equipment to Mr. Lewis.(4)







This is as close as I have been able to come to a photo of the bottling plant. It is the building in the left hand foreground with the Ferris Wheel beside it. The photo is from 1924 after the plant stopped operating, but if you look close at the front porch you can see what appear to be bottle coolers. I would assume that they are 3-C Nectar coolers, and would love to find one for my collection.





The location of 3-C Nectar is now a small park in Bluefield, VA





Previously unknown blue 7oz 3-C Nectar bottle, the blue bottles appear to be the first bottles that were used for the brand, quickly replaced by the dark flint glass bottles.





Clear 7oz 3-C Nectar bottle.





7oz dark gray 3-C Nectar bottle





3-C Nectar bottle cap





7oz "Ring Neck" 3-C Nectar bottle. This bottle is a variation of the dark gray bottle above.









7oz 3-C Nectar deco bottle



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Biblography:

(1)Polk's Bluefield City Directory 1921-1923

(2) The History of the Marion Bottling Company, Inc. By Wythe M. Hull, Jr Copyright 1985 by Wythe M. Hull, Jr

(3) "Twenty-Third Annual Report of the State Corporation Commission of Virginia" published 1926

(4) Bluefield Daily Telegraph

(5) Beverage Blue Book

(6) American Bottler