Christy and Huggins Company

Creator

Jason Ritter

Lede

An industry that sprang up from the ground
Access Information - The bottling company and ice plant no longer exists. The current location is occupied by the Children's Discovery Center and Murfree Springs Wetlands.

Story-Subject

At the south end of Maney Ave, where it intersects Broad Street, now sits the Discovery Center at Murfree Springs. Many people might remember the location being more commercial due to the large Coca-Cola bottling plant that sat there for almost a century.

The original business that sat at the edge of the natural spring was Stones River Creamery. It was founded in 1884 by C. B. Huggins, and represents the beginning of Rutherford county’s creamery industry. By 1902, Huggins brought S. B. Christy into the business, turning the creamery into a soda bottling company and ice factory.

The plant bottled Coca-Cola products from the early 19th century until 1985. Along with bottling soda and manufacturing ice, the Christy and Huggins Corporation supplied the community with energy for heat by operating the coal yard that sat nearby. With technological advances such as air conditioning, the coal business was no longer profitable by the mid-1950s. Ice production was also stopped in the 1960s, with access to at-home refrigeration rendering it unprofitable.

Due to the sprawling Broad Street project and city urbanization plans, the factory closed its doors in 1985, making way for enormous road expansion. Today the city has restored much of the area to its natural state. It now not only houses the 18,000-square-foot Discovery Center Museum, but is also home to the 25-acre Murfree Springs Wetlands recreational park, where visitors can observe the area’s wildlife in its native ecosystem.

Subtitle

Wetlands once home to major industry.

Source

File #13: Christy and Huggins 1902.png
Daily News Journal. “Waterworks and Ice Plant, Murfreesboro, Tenn.” Rutherford County Historical Society. March 30, 1994. http://rutherfordtnhistory.org/coca-cola-bottler-puts-cap-on-long-presence/. Accessed on November 30, 2021.

File #14: “Discovery Center 2020.jpg”
Payne, Laura Beth. “Discovery Center & Murfree Springs Wetland.” Murfreesborovoice.com. Jul 01, 2020. https://www.murfreesborovoice.com/article/3935/murfreesboro-mama-8-things-to-know-about-discovery-centers-reopening. Accessed on November 30, 2021

Official Website of historic site/monument

Discovery Center: https://explorethedc.org/

Related Resources

Davis, Doug. “City Bottoms Made Way for Broad Street.” Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, TN), May 30, 2012.

Henderson, C. C. “Murfreesboro and Rutherford County. A Historical Story.” Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, TN), Sep 4, 1929.

Jakes, Bill. Postcard History Series: Murfreesboro. Arcadia Publishing, 2006.

“Institutions and Enterprises: Coke Bottling Works.” Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, TN), July 27, 1975.

“Local.” Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, TN), July 25 1884.

“Murfree Spring Wetlands.” Murfreesborotn.org. City of Murfreesboro Tennessee. Accessed on November 18, 2021. http://www.murfreesborotn.gov/187/Murfree-Spring-Wetlands#:~:text=A%20favorite%20spot%20for%20nature%20photographers%20and%20birdwatchers%2C,Discovery%20Center%2C%20a%20hands-on%20children%E2%80%99s%20museum%2C%20is%20adjacent.

“Rutherford County is Becoming World’s Jersey Cattle Capital: County’s Progress Earns Title.” Daily News Journal, Sep 29, 1941.

Bibliographic Citation

Jason Ritter, “Christy and Huggins Company,” Momentous Murfreesboro , accessed September 11, 2025, https://momentous-murfreesboro.mtsu.edu/admin/items/show/10.

Address

502 S. E. Broad St. Murfreesboro, TN 37130