Freund's Bakery - Kosciusko Neighborhood Sign

When I was scootering around Kosciusko the other day, I spotted a sign atop a beautiful building along South Broadway.

The Freund’s font was perfect and stoked my curiosity. This neighborhood was once a bustling European immigrant area. Freund’s sounds German in my mind and it does indeed translate to the masculine of friend.

The Freund’s sign at some point lost it’s top as the parapet showed signs of damage and aging. Google streetview shows that the sign may have been restored or saved at some point, when the hip right above the lettering was rebuilt. Here’s a Google Streetview image from 2011 prior to repair.

I had to know what Freund’s was, so after a few clicks, I’m pretty convinced it was part of a four-generation family run bakery with roots back to 19th Century Bohemia (now the Czech Republic).

Moritz Freund was born in Bohemia (1810-1872) and trained as a baker. Jetta (Henrietta) Freund was also born in Bohemia (1821-1863). They made their way to America in 1848 and settled in Soulard. LaSalle was largely a Czech immigrant neighborhood and it flowed right into Soulard before the Interstates tore apart St. Louis. The vast majority of Czech immigrants were poor and Catholic, from the old days of serfdom. The Freund’s were Jewish, charter members of B’nai El Temple (source) and bakers of old-world rye bread.

Their story is fascinating. Moritz started out as a dry goods peddler, but was always helping his wife by executing the daily chore of making rye bread for the family (they had seven kids) in their wood fired oven at 913 Soulard Street.

The daily bread baking eventual evolved into a bakery business by 1856. At first, the kids hand delivered the bread to corner grocery stores; as the business grew, they started reaching larger areas in the city by horse drawn wagons, eventually trucks and they were nationwide. The bakery was located in their home at 913 Soulard Street for over 60 years!

Per a KETC St. Louis Story of Jewish Americans entitled The Bakery Born in a Kitchen Oven – Freund Baking Company, by Gladis Barker:

“…Mrs. Freund(‘s) oven was heated by cordwood supplied by a bearded, struggling farmer who was later to become President of the United States – Ulysses S. Grant! Her bread was welcomed by the Union Army soldiers at Jefferson Barracks during the Civil War, and by succeeding generations of soldiers until the post was closed after World War II.

The famous Freund rye bread was present at a wide range of important social events and establishments. When the Veiled Prophet made its first visit to St. Louis in 1878, Freund bread had an honored place on the menu of the first queen. It showed up at the fabulous St. Louis World’s Fair where visitors praised the Freund bread and rolls served in every pavilion and booth. In the 1880’s and ‘90’s at the famous outdoor beer gardens, patrons feasted on hearty sandwiches made with Freund rye bread.”

They also made fruit cakes, donuts and all kinds of other house breads, but it was the Old Tyme Rye Bread that was their base.

Photo Source: Missouri Historical Society

Their home and bakery at 913 Soulard Street is no longer standing. Per Historic Aerials, it was destroyed. sometime between 1971 and 1985. The home bakery did indeed survive the 1896 tornado that wiped out much of this part of St. Louis (source).

They continued to grow and grow and as the technology changed and automobiles became ubiquitous, the Freund’s read the changing times well. In 1921they purchased a large building at 920 South Taylor (at Chouteau) in the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood when trucking operations became the means to deliver the daily bread. This massive building was just south of I-64, then Highway 40, which was built in 1926.

Freund’s Bakery Trucks - 1953 Globe Democrat Photo - Source: St. Louis Mercantile Library at UMSL

The building is no longer in existence as it was destroyed sometime before 2004 per Historic Aerials. The Freund’s building was just west of the massive gasometer that used to be visible from I-64. Now you’ll see a Home 2 Suites Hotel on the property. Per accounts from St. Louisans back in the day, the whole area smelled like baked goods and there was a massive Freund’s billboard that marked the building (I need to find a pic).

The bakery remained family-owned for four generations up to 1971. Per a March 4th, 1968 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, American Bakeries Company of Chicago, IL purchased them in 1968. By 1971 the baking company had taken over the reigns of management from the family-owned Freund’s. The business was earning $5M annually and had over 400 employees when they were purchased.

American Bakeries already had a presence in St. Louis with bakeries at 4101 Cook Avenue and 3900 Washington Boulevard. They used the Freund’s recipe until 1988.

4101 Cook Avenue at North Sarah, is in the Vandeventer Neighborhood. Per a 2007 Google Streetview image, it was beautiful building that was destroyed and now sits as an empty lot since at least 2009 per Google Streetview.

3900 Washington Boulevard is now and electric supply building at Washington and Vandeventer.

So thank you kind building owner for being a good steward of our history. You could have easily lopped off the sign, but instead, you preserved it for another generation, and people like me who love to learn more about the city they live in.

Cheers to all the preservationists out there, saving the little things.

Some other reminders of the Freund’s long run.