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Beulah Association buys Coke building for new ministry center
By Mike Creswell, BSC Communications
July 29, 2008
3 MIN READ TIME

Beulah Association buys Coke building for new ministry center

Beulah Association buys Coke building for new ministry center
By Mike Creswell, BSC Communications
July 29, 2008

BSC photo by Mike Creswell

Danny Glover, associational missionary for the Beulah Baptist Association, stands in front of the building that the association will use as a ministry center.

ROXBORO – A former Coca-Cola bottling plant will become a

new ministry center for Beulah Baptist Association once renovations are

complete.

The association bought the 9,700- sq.-ft., three-floor

building July 3 for $150,000, and leaders hope to begin using the facility for

associational office operations by late August, said Danny Glover, missions

director for the association.

The building will play an integral part in the

association’s plans to boost the ability of association churches to do ministry

and outreach across Person, Caswell and northern Orange counties. For example,

“We want to use this building as a pickup point for our disaster relief

trailer just being completed and for our community events/block party trailer

that we hope to have completed soon,” said Glover.

“There’s the possibility of using space here for a

Christmas toy store for the community and for a job corps training center. We

hope to work in partnership with a Christian help center in Roxboro that

distributes clothes, food and financial resources,” he said, adding that

the building will allow off-season storage of materials. “We may set up an

additional food distribution center here,” he said.

“We have a lot of plans for the place but we’re just

getting started. We want to do some things to help the community. Part of the

reason Coca-Cola ended up selling to us was because we’re going to help the

community. They discounted the price because we’re going to help the

community,” he said.

The Coke building is a perfect location for such work,

because it sits at the intersection of Morgan and Long streets in central

Roxboro, just two blocks off Highway 501. It is near the Person County office

building and across the street from a county parking lot and a city park with

playgrounds. “We’re at a great place,” Glover said.

The association has already obtained a building use

permit from the city government, and Glover said city officials were enthusiastic

about plans for the helping ministries to be put into motion.

Relatively minor renovations will be required to get the

building into useable condition, he said. Associational leaders have been

meeting with contractors to get the heating/air conditioning and electrical

system up to standards.

New windows and general refurbishment will be needed, but

contractors have said the building is structurally sound. The building has

spacious warehouse storage areas, three loading docks and parking for around 75

cars, Glover said.

The front part of the building was built in 1935; the

back part was constructed in 1953. Coca-Cola’s distinctive logo is set in stone

on the front of the building. Coca-Cola officials made only one stipulation in

the transaction: “The Coke logo will remain on the front of the building,

or if we ever sell the building, Coca-Cola will get to remove and keep the

historic Coke sign,” Glover said.

The Coca-Cola company moved its main bottling and

distribution work to Durham many years ago; in recent years the Roxboro

building has been used only on a limited basis for storing equipment.

Expanded ministries and the building will be a big

commitment for Beulah Baptist Association, which until now has had only a small

office on West Main Street. Glover is a part-time, bivocational director of

missions. The association is made up of 34 churches, though in July Beulah’s

executive board accepted a new church, Covenant Reformed Church in Yanceyville,

under watchcare for a year, pending full membership.