The building features a terra cotta exterior with ornamentation that pays tribute to Louis Sullivan.[4] The original flooring is made of reinforced concrete.[2] In the early 21st century, the building fell into a state of disrepair.[5] In 2016, however, a developer stated that the building was being rehabilitated for adaptive reuse in 2017 and following years as a data center.[6]
The building is located between the western edge of Washington Park and the Dan Ryan Expressway along a section of Garfield Boulevard that formerly hosted prominent businesses, including Schulze and the Wanzer Milk Company. The area has suffered from economic decay and crime during the second half of the 20th century. One of the few significant remaining businesses in the old Black Belt during this time was Hostess, which still used the building to make Butternut Bread.[3]
Baking company
The Schulze Baking Company's Jeffrey Apron Conveyor. (1920)
Schulze, with its signature Butternut Bread, eventually became Interstate Bakeries Corporation/Hostess Brands. The business was once Chicago's largest wholesale business entity.[3] Although, according to Form 10-K filings by the Interstate Bakeries Corporation with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the Schulze Baking Company was not formed until 1927, many records contradict this claim.[7] Historical accounts of Chicago claim that Paul Schulze, 1910-11 president of the National Association of Master Bakers, started the Schulze Baking Company in 1893 with his brothers.[8] Interstate's own company history even confirms the 1893 beginning of Schulze.[9]
In 1912, prior to the construction of the plant, the company had four baking plants throughout the city of Chicago and general offices in the Chicago Stock Exchange Building on LaSalle Street in the Chicago Loop.[8] In the 1910s, the company had extensive legal battles regarding protecting its trademarks.[10]
In 1921, Paul Schulze sold control of the company to Ralph Leroy Nafziger.[11] In 1930, Nafziger announced the formation of Interstate Bakeries through the merger of Schulze Baking and Western Bakeries of Los Angeles to form Interstate Bakeries. Schulze and Western continued to maintain their own separate companies under the Interstate umbrella until 1937, when Schulze formally became Interstate.
Paul Schulze went on to operate small bakeries elsewhere under the name of Schulze and Burch Biscuit Company.[11]
Architecture
The building is a white terra cotta structure designed by John Ahlschlager in 1914 for the Schulze Baking Company.[3] The terra cotta walls were five storeys high.[4] The building featured blue lettering, foliated cornice ornamentation, and stringcourses of rosettes.[4] The building uses 700 windows grouped to complement the ornamentation's allusion to themes of nature and purity.[4] The ornamentation is considered abstract, Sullivanesque and modern.[4] The company used Apron conveyor manufactured by the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Ohio.[12] A lengthy low industrial complex extends northward behind the main five-story building.[5]
The structure has a flat concrete slab floor with four-way reinforcement designed to support 300 pounds per square inch (2,100kPa).[2] The dimensions of the building 298feet 4inches (90.93m) by 160 feet (49m) and it is composed of floor space segmented into 17feet 6inches (5.33m) by 20 feet (6.1m).[2] The second floor is 9 inches (23cm) thick except in the 7feet 6inches (2.29m) square surrounding each column where it is 14 inches (36cm) thick.[2]
As of late 2008, the building was showing signs of wear, disrepair, and neglect. At least one terra cotta cornice was missing, and the building had numerous walkway coverings to protect passersby from falling debris such as further terra cotta loss. One side wall was propped up with wood beams at 45degree angles. In addition, the building had some graffiti markings.[5] However, developer Ghian Foreman stated in February 2016 that the rehabilitation of the former Schulze Baking Company plant into a data center, to be called the Midway Technology Center, was on schedule for operation in 2017. The adaptive reuse project allegedly involved the investment of more than $130 million.[6]
1 2 3 Powers, Robert (October 12, 2008). "Chicago Baking Company". A Chicago Sojourn. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2009.
Old HB, Inc., known as Hostess Brands from 2009 to 2013 and established in 1930 as Interstate Bakeries Corporation, was a wholesale baker and distributor of bakery products in the United States. Before its 2012 closure and liquidation, it owned the Hostess, Wonder Bread, Nature's Pride, Dolly Madison, Butternut Breads, and Drake's brands.
George Weston was an American-born Canadian businessman and the founder of George Weston Limited. He became Toronto's biggest baker with Canada's largest bread factory. Weston began his career at the age of 12 as a baker's apprentice and went on to become a bread route salesman. By the turn of the century, he was known throughout the city for his "Weston’s Home-Made Bread" and years later for "Weston’s Biscuits." In addition to being a successful local businessman, he was also a prominent Methodist, as well as a municipal politician who served four years as alderman on Toronto City Council.
Drake's is a brand of American baked goods. The company was founded by Newman E. Drake in 1896 in Harlem, New York, as The N.E. Drake Baking Company, but it is now owned by McKee Foods. The company makes snack cake products such as Devil Dogs, Funny Bones, Coffee Cakes, Ring Dings, and Yodels. Drake's has traditionally been marketed primarily in the Northeastern U.S., but it expanded to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. regions in 2016. The products are made under the Orthodox Union kosher certification guidelines.
Wonder Bread is a brand of sliced bread which originated in the United States in 1921 and was one of the first to be sold pre-sliced nationwide in 1930. The brand is currently owned by Flowers Foods in the United States.
Mather Tower is a Neo-Gothic, terra cotta-clad high-rise structure in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located at 75 East Wacker Drive in the downtown "loop" area, adjacent to the Chicago River.
Glazed architectural terra cotta is a ceramic masonry building material used as a decorative skin. It featured widely in the 'terracotta revival' from the 1880s until the 1930s. It was used in the UK, United States, Canada and Australia and is still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments. It is the glazed version of architectural terracotta; the material in both its glazed and unglazed versions is sturdy and relatively inexpensive, and can be molded into richly ornamented detail. Glazed terra-cotta played a significant role in architectural styles such as the Chicago School and Beaux-Arts architecture.
George Weston Limited, often referred to as Weston or Weston's, is a Canadian holding company. Founded by George Weston in 1882, the company today consists of the Choice Properties real estate investment trust and Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest supermarket retailer, in which it maintains a controlling interest. Retail brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh. The former Weston Bakeries division, which owned the brands Wonder, Country Harvest, D'Italiano, Ready Bake and Gadoua, was sold off to FGF Brands in 2022. The company is controlled by the Weston family, which owns a majority share in George Weston Limited.
The Van Allen Building, also known as Van Allen and Company Department Store, is a historic commercial building at Fifth Avenue and South Second Street in Clinton, Iowa. The four-story building was designed by Louis Sullivan and commissioned by John Delbert Van Allen. Constructed 1912–1914 as a department store, it now has upper floor apartments with ground floor commercial space. The exterior has brick spandrels and piers over the structural steel skeletal frame. Terra cotta is used for horizontal accent banding and for three slender, vertical applied mullion medallions on the front facade running through three stories, from ornate corbels at the second-floor level to huge outbursts of vivid green terra cotta foliage in the attic. There is a very slight cornice. Black marble facing is used around the glass show windows on the first floor. The walls are made of long thin bricks in a burnt gray color with a tinge of purple. Above the ground floor all the windows are framed by a light gray terra cotta. The tile panels in Dutch blue and white pay tribute to Mr. Van Allen's Dutch heritage of which he was quite proud.. The Van Allen Building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its architecture.
United States Bakery, better known as Franz Family Bakeries, is a bread and pastry manufacturer headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Franz Bakery was founded in 1906. U.S. Bakery also owns the Northwest regional bread brands Williams', Gai's, and Snyder's.
The Ward Baking Company Building was an industrial facility in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, New York. It was constructed in 1911 by George S. Ward as a baking plant.
Flowers Foods, headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia, is a producer and marketer of packed bakery food. The company operates 47 bakeries producing bread, buns, rolls, snack cakes, pastries, and tortillas. Flowers Foods' products are sold regionally through a direct store delivery network that encompasses the East, South, Southwest, West, and the Northwest regions of the United States and are delivered nationwide to retailer's warehouses. It has made acquisitions of a number of bakeries and other food companies over the years, continuing through to the present day. As of February 2013, it had grown to be the "second-largest baking company in the United States".
11 South LaSalle Street Building or Eleven South LaSalle Street Building is a Chicago Landmark building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and that is located at 11 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. This address is located on the southeast corner of LaSalle and Madison Street in Cook County, Illinois, across the Madison Street from the One North LaSalle Building. The building sits on a site of a former Roanoke building that once served as a National Weather Service Weather Forecast official climate site and replaced Major Block 1 after the Great Chicago Fire. The current building has incorporated the frontage of other buildings east of the original site of Major Block 1.
Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. is the American corporate arm of the Mexican multinational bakery product manufacturing company Grupo Bimbo. It is the largest bakery company in the United States. The company, headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, owns many fresh bread and sweet baked goods brands in the United States, including Entenmann's, Sara Lee, and Thomas'. It is also a top advertising sponsor for many major soccer teams around the globe.
Merita is a brand of breads that was produced by Hostess Brands and now produced by Flowers Foods, available throughout the Southeastern United States until November 16, 2012, when Hostess's management decided to liquidate Hostess. The company gave as their reason for this action that they had been crippled by a strike by BCTGM, the bakers' union. Union spokespersons attributed the company's situation to poor management over a long period of years.
The history of California bread as a prominent factor in the field of bread baking dates from the days of the California Gold Rush around 1849, encompassing the development of sourdough bread in San Francisco. It includes the rise of artisan bakeries in the 1980s, which strongly influenced what has been called the "Bread Revolution".
The Continental Baking Company was one of the first bakeries to introduce fortified bread. It was the maker of the Twinkie and Wonder Bread. Through a series of acquisitions and mergers it became part of the former Hostess Brands company.
Colombo Baking Company was a bakery founded in 1896, known for its sourdough bread. Located at 580 Julie Ann Way in Oakland, California, it became a wholly owned division of Hostess Brands. Colombo sourdough rolls were manufactured at a satellite bakery in Sacramento, California. Along with Toscana bakery of Oakland and Parisian bakery of San Francisco, Colombo became part of the San Francisco French Bread Company (SFFBC) which was acquired by Hostess in 1994. The brands competed locally in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result of Hostess liquidating the company, Colombo shuttered its operation in November, 2012. The SFFBC, through Colombo's bakery, was the maker of Emperor Norton San Francisco Sourdough Snacks, which ceased production in 2012, prior to the Hostess liquidation.
Ralph Leroy Nafziger was the founder of the Interstate Bakeries Corporation, which eventually became Hostess Brands.
Cramer's Bakery was founded in 1891 by George and Bertha Cramer in San Diego. For 52 years, the business delivered bread to residences and businesses in San Diego County, Imperial County, CA and Yuma County, AZ. During that time, Cramer's Bakery became famous in the area for their Butter Cream Bread. The bakery merged with Interstate Baking Company and sold to the Long Beach-based Weber-Millbrook Bakery Division of IBC in 1943.
The Lindemann and Hoverson Company Showroom and Warehouse is a historic industrial building at 2620 W. Washington Boulevard in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The Lindemann and Hoverson Company, which manufactured heaters, stoves, and electric kitchen tools, built the building in 1924. Architect Paul Gerhardt, Sr., designed the industrial loft; while such buildings were often plain structures, his design is more formal and includes ornamentation. The building's showroom section, which encompasses the first two floors on the west side, is clad with a terra cotta section which features pilasters and a frieze. The remainder of the building has a brick exterior, though it includes terra cotta medallions and a cornice. Lindemann and Hoverson occupied the building until 1941.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
