Dr. Pepper Plant

A 1930s Dr. Pepper plant in Dallas, TX is having an extreme makeover.

The Deep Ellum aging industrial facility will get a redo, having once housed Dr. Pepper's headquarters.

Now it will be the focus of a Deep Ellum redevelopment.

"The project includes the three-story building at Second and Hickory Street that housed Dr. Pepper's office and plant in the 1930s and 1940s," said writer Steve Brown. "Dr. Pepper moved out of the building in 1948."

The facility was then relocated to Mockingbird Lane.

"It is a historic structure and an important part of that development is preserving that building," said developer Jim Lake Jr. "That development is evolving but we are putting the pieces together."

According to Brown, Lake Company and 2M plan to build residential and retail space on the north side of the Dr. Pepper building.

Several small townhouses and loft apartment projects have been developed in the surrounding neighborhood, research finds.

Lake Co's new scheme for the property is the second redevelopment plan for the old Dr. Pepper building in recent years, according to records.

"I like that area," said Lionel Hutz. "There needs to be some development bridging Deep Ellum and Exposition Park."

Now located at 2304 Century Center Boulevard in neighboring Irving, the Dr. Pepper/7UP plant gives tours on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Call in advance to 972-721-8394.

Bryant Adkins, who calls himself a child of the 80s, remembers drinking Dr. Peppers and hanging out at Blind Lemon Club in Deep Ellum.

Dr. Pepper is the oldest major soft drink in America according to its website.

The oldest Dr. Pepper bottler in the world, Dublin Dr. Pepper also has the distinction of being bottled with Imperial Pure Cane Sugar - the original Dr. Pepper formula.

Dublin, TX, also known officially as Dr. Pepper, Texas, for one week each June during its annual birthday celebration became the site for the world's oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plan in 1891, jut six years after the drink's invention in nearby Waco by Charles Alderton in 1885. For several years Dr. Pepper was sold only as a fountain drink but when businessman Sam Houston Prim tasted the new drink he decided it has a promising future as a bottled drink.

Residents of the community in Dublin enthusiastically support what they consider "their" Dr. Pepper with the original loaded sugar.

The Dublin Dr. Pepper plant has never been sold.