The Dr Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute in downtown Waco is dedicated to telling not just the story of Dr Pepper, but the story of the entire soft drink industry. Charles Alderton who developed a unique combination of flavors in 1885 in Dr. Wade Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store. The soft drink — which, according to legend, Morrison named after the father of a girl he once loved — quickly became known as a “Waco.” The museum is located in the former Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company building. Completed in 1906, the structure was the first building built specifically to bottle Dr Pepper and remained in use until the 1960s when operations moved to a facility with more room for canning. The building remained vacant for roughly two decades until 1985 — the centennial of Dr Pepper — when work started to convert the building into a museum. The museum officially opened to the public on May 11, 1991.
Dr Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute
