In 1910, when the Coca-Cola company of Atlanta decided to build a plant in the Mid-west, Asa G. Candler, president of the company, made a tour from St. Louis to San Francisco and back, taking a southern route westward and returning by a northern route. After considering various locations he chose Kansas City. Here he found capital and labor apparently living together in more harmonious relations than in other cities of equal importance. Five years later, in 1915, the pie-shaped 12 story Coca-Cola building was erected, on two levels, at the southeast corner of Twenty-first street and Grand avenue, three blocks east of Union Station. Arthur Tufts of Baltimore designed the building, which the Swenson Construction company erected at a cost of $1,075,275. The building was adapted and constructed for the use of the manufacturer and high-class jobbing merchant, according to the souvenir booklet issued at the time of the opening. The curved side of the building faces south and east over the tracks of the Kansas City Terminal Railway company, which serve the building at Twenty-first street, on the lower level. The Western Auto Supply company moved into the building in 1928 and purchased it in 1951. Kansas City Times, May 15, 1971.
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