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 to 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!

Water Tower Coffee Pot and Cup:
Address: Grand Avenue, Stanton, IA [Show Map]
Directions: South of US Hwy 34.

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.

Swedish Coffee Pot Water Tower:
Address: 1460 Marion, Kingsburg, CA [Show Map]
Directions: Old Swedish Mill Restaurant. It sits directly behind the fire station, in "Public Park."

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.]

Building Shaped Like a Coffee Pot:
Address: 1870 East Midland Trail, Buena Vista, VA [Show Map]
Directions: On US 60 about a mile east of I-81 exit 188.
Hours: Closed but visible

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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....

World's Largest Coffee Pot:
Address: Island Falls, ME [Show Map]
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.

Bob's Java Jive - Giant Coffee Pot:
Address: 2102 S Tacoma Way, Tacoma, WA [Show Map]
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 will be on the right.
Hours: Late. (Call to verify)
Phone: 253-475-9843

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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.

Coffee Pot-shaped Building:
Address: Business Rt. 30 (West Pitt St.), Bedford, PA [Show Map]
Directions: One mile west of town center on Business Rte 30 (West Pitt St.), at the entrance to Bedford County Fairgrounds.
Hours: Daylight hours. (Call to verify)
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.

Teapot Dome Gas Station:
Address: 14691 Yakima Valley Hwy, Zillah, WA [Show Map]
Directions: I-82 South from Yakima to Exit 54. Cross over the freeway heading west. It's on the SW side of the frontage road.