Big Coffee Pots
Coffee is God to legions of the wide-awake, temporarily increasing brain power and sand-papering nerves. Decades before long haulers supersized Cokes and kept driving, a simple cup of mud did the trick. So big roadside coffee pots were one way to catch the heavily-lidded eye.
Now fancy modern coffees keep America alert -- and you have to be alert to spot any of the dwindling population of original big coffee pots.
The Big Coffee Pot
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
In the restored Moravian Village of Old Salem, you'll find the oldest of the giant vessels, fashioned from shiny metal. Erected in about 1860, it was created to advertise a silversmith. Maybe twelve feet tall or so, on a stand -- our 6-ft. tall Hinged Man™ is pretty useless in this photo...
Water
Tower Coffee Pot
Stanton, Iowa
One of the few towns with a semi-legitimate coffee claim-to-fame, Stanton is the home of "Mrs. Olson." Or, at least, was the home of an actress -- stage name Virginia Christine -- made famous as Folgers' Mrs. Olson, hawking their "mountain grown" coffee in TV commercials and on the sides of coffee cans. She'd long since departed the Iowa, but returned for the town's Centennial celebration in 1970 as parade Grand Marshal. Stanton celebrated the connection, along with its own Scandinavian coffee roots, with a 120-ft. Coffee Pot Water Tower erected in 1971.
The "Swedish-style" pot, painted with decorative hearts and flowers, holds 40,000 gallons, on top of a 90-ft. tower, pot is 35-ft. high, 20-ft. wide, spout is 10-ft. high, 6-ft. deep, the handle is 15-ft. high. If you really care.
In 2000, a 96-ft. tall coffee cup water tower was erected to complement the coffee pot. Its capacity dwarfs the old pot, holding 150,000 gallons of water ready for percolation. It won the 2000 "Tank of the Year" award from the Steel Plate Manufacturer's Association!
Address: Grand Ave., Stanton, IA
Directions: At the corner of Grand Ave. and Thorn St.
Swedish Coffee Pot
Kingsburg, California
While we're on Swedish pots, let's not forget Kingsburg, a Swedish theme town with a couple blocks of downtown decorated in a Nordic motif, complete with Viking and Dala horse restaurant. The water tower is made to look like a giant coffee pot, a la Stanton. A town once of overwhelmingly Swedish descent, modern, diverse Kingsburg still pays tribute to its heritage with an annual festival.
Address: 1460 Marion, Kingsburg, CA
Directions: Old Swedish Mill Restaurant. It sits directly behind the fire station, in Downtown Park between Smith and Marion, and Draper and Lewis Sts.
Building
Shaped Like Coffee Pot
Lexington, Virginia
Between Lexington and Buena Vista, a building that almost looks like a coffee pot sits on a the right side of a curving grade. The two-story corrugated metal structure qualifies as coffee-related by virtue of its roundness and the attached spout and handle.
At the time of our visit it was the James River Basin Canoe Livery, renting canoes for vacationing and weekend paddlers.
[Update - August 2007 - Closed for over a year, reported to be difficult to stop along the highway for a photo, but the coffee elements are still there.]
Address: 1870 East Midland Trail, Lexington, VA
Directions: Between Buena Vista and Lexington. West of Lexington on US 60 about a mile east of I-81 exit 188.
World's Largest Coffee Pot
Island Falls, Maine
The claimed "World's Largest Coffee Pot" is brought out for the Log Drivers Cookout in early March. It's in Aroostook, the northernmost part of Maine -- too far away for us to actually visit and verify....
Address: Island Falls, ME
Directions: I-95 exit 276, then east on Hwy 159 into town. On snow tires.
Coffee-Pot-Shaped Night Club
Tacoma, Washington
Bob's World Famous Java Jive, a Puget Sound landmark, was built in 1927. It is 25 ft. high and 30 ft. in diameter, and has gone through a number of interior makeovers. When owned by Bob and Lylabell Radonich, it was a Polynesian themed place with a Jungle Room and two monkeys living there -- Java and Jive. Java Jive continues the trashy decor today. In 1998 the building barely averted damage in a fire that gutted apartments behind it.
Address: 2102 S Tacoma Way, Tacoma, WA
Directions: I-5 to the 38th St. exit. Head west. Turn right at S. Pine St. (Guitar Center), then right at S. Tacoma Way. Bob's Java Jive is on right.
Hours: Always visible; doesn't open until 8 pm or so. (Call to verify)
Phone: 253-475-9843
Coffee Pot-shaped Building
Bedford, Pennsylvania
The Coffee Pot in Bedford is looking mighty trim these days, but it came within an inch of the scrap pile. It had been a unique landmark along the Lincoln Highway (Highway 30) since 1927, a welcoming place to grab gas and a cup of coffee.
The Coffee Pot went through a string of owners and functions, and by the 1990s it was worn, damaged and ready for the bulldozers. Fortunately, a highway landmark preservation group raised funds to get the Big Coffee Pot moved across the street to the County Fairgrounds, and completely refurbished in 2004.
Address: Business Rt. 30 (West Pitt St.), Bedford, PA
Directions: One mile west of town center on Business Rte 30 (West Pitt St.), at the entrance to Bedford County Fairgrounds.
Phone: 814-623-1771
Teapot
Dome Gas Station
Zillah, Washington
This pot, though smaller than most, always looks good in calendar photos and postcards. It's off I-82 about 15 miles southeast of Yakima. It may have been the oldest operating gas station in the US before it stopped operating in 2003.
The 15-ft. building was created in 1922 by Jack Ainsworth as a political statement memorializing the Harding Teapot Dome scandal.
Not really a coffee pot, but we had no plans to do a page on teapots. So there you have it.
Address: 14691 Yakima Valley Hwy., Zillah, WA
Directions: I-82 South from Yakima to Exit 54. Cross over the freeway heading west. On SW side of frontage road. (move downtown planned)
Phone: 509-829-5055
February 2005: Lynn's Paradise Café, Louisville, Kentucky, let us know about
the big coffee pot in front of their restaurant. While it doesn't tower over
the interstate, the 8-ft. tall, bright red pot is at ground level and features
a companion
coffee
cup, so it's an easy photo op (Family with heads in cup: "AAIEEE! We've
been HORRIBLY SCALDED!"). The pot, built by the Cafe staff in 1994, operates
as
a fountain, pouring tap temperature water into the cup.
Address: 984 Barret Ave., Louisville, KY
Directions: Lynn's Paradise Cafe. East of I-65, northwest of Winter Ave.
Hours: M-F 7 am - 10 pm, Sa-Su 8 am - 10 pm. (Call to verify)
Phone: 502-583-3447
