Dr Pepper Museum

Dr Pepper was first made in Waco in 1885. At Wade B. Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store, pharmacist Charles Courtice Alderton worked at the soda fountain with fruit extracts and sweeteners, and a twenty-three-flavor blend sold at first under the name "Waco." Morrison later named it Dr Pepper. The Handbook of Texas calls the stories of how he chose the name unsubstantiated and says no one knows exactly why he did.

By 1891 demand had outgrown the drugstore, and Morrison and Waco beverage chemist Robert S. Lazenby started the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company. In 1905 the company paid $6,000 for the corner of 5th and Mary streets, and local architect Milton Scott designed a Richardsonian-Romanesque headquarters. Production began there in 1906. The building held bottling, offices and laboratories for Dr Pepper and other sodas.

The museum calls the building its biggest artifact, with some original features still visible. Inside are a soda fountain, an exhibit billed as the world's largest Dr Pepper bottle, and a lunch counter exhibit titled "Sit Down to Take a Stand." Paid admission includes a Dr Pepper. Tickets are not sold online, and the hands-on experiences, among them Make-A-Soda, need reservations.