Books by
Michael Barr
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The
Germans brought a love of fresh bread to the Texas
Hill Country. Housewives baked bread at home until a string of
bakeries in Fredericksburg
made loaves of fresh bread for families, stores and restaurants.
Bread-making takes time and patience. Because the shelf-life of bread
is short, housewives of the early 20th century typically made bread
several times a week.
Considering the time and effort involved in making bread, it is easy
to understand why a housewife would choose to save herself hours of
work by purchasing a loaf of fresh bread at the bakery for a nickel.
In 1891 Franz Moritz and his wife Katherine (Stein) opened a bakery
in Fredericksburg.
They had recently moved into town from their farm on Palo Alto Creek.
Franz had previously worked in a bakery in Galveston.
He ran the bakery in Fredericksburg until about 1913. Beginning in
1916, M. Tichmann operated a bakery in the Louis Priess Building at
141 East Main Street. Tichmann made bread, cakes and pies "of the
finest quality." Fruitcake for Thanksgiving was a specialty.
Tichmann originally called his bakery Fredericksburg Bakery, but he
changed the name to Tichmann Bakery. The business took orders over
the phone and delivered anywhere in town.
Tichmann was a businessman who looked out for his customers. A notice
in the Fredericksburg Standard (May 5, 1917) announced "On account
of the high price of flour and other materials, we will have to charge
10c for a loaf of bread, beginning Tuesday, May 8th, but we will make
the loaves bigger. Tichmann Bakery."
George Stucke bought Tichmann Bakery in 1917. Stucke came from San
Antonio where he operated a bakery on Commerce Street. Except
for a brief period, Stucke ran the business, called Fredericksburg
Bakery, until his death in 1948.
In 1945 George Stucke finally joined the 20th century. He gave up
his wood-fired oven for gas.
Werner Schult opened a bakery in Fredericksburg on June 21, 1924 in
the Wahrmund Building (sometimes called the Clark Building) at 312
East Main Street (today Der Lindenbaum). Ed Stark bought the bakery
from Schult in 1927.
Stark renamed the business Blue Bonnet Bakery. He opened a second
location up the street, next door to the Palace Theater.
In 1928 H. N. Kissel bought Blue Bonnet Bakery and changed the name
to City Bakery. Werner Schult took the business back in 1929.
Schult sold the business to William Moellendorf later that year. Moellendorf
had baking experience in Gonzales,
Luling and San
Antonio.
Schwiening's Bakery opened in the spring of 1930. The newspaper described
the location of the business as being "the second door next to the
Post Office."
In 1932 there were 3 bakeries on Fredericksburg's
Main Street cranking out bread within a few blocks of each other:
Schweining's, Moellendorf's and Stucke's. A customer could buy a loaf
of bread for a dime.
In 1939 William Moellendorf sold his bakery to his brother-in-law
Theo Dietz. Theo, born in Gillespie
County in 1880, was an experienced baker having operated bakeries
in Kerrville
and Kingsville.
The Dietz family ran the legendary bakery for the next 70 years.
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Dietz Bakery
Photo
courtesy courtesy Gillespie County Historical Society.
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In the 1950s
Bruce and Dorothy Scully opened Fredericksburg Bakery in the old Louis
Priess Building next door to Dooley's. The bakery was locally famous
for pastries and homemade bread. Some of the recipes went all the
way back to George Stucke in the early 20th century. Mike and Patsy
Penick bought the bakery in the 1980s.
In 1965 Dietz Bakery, then owned by Theo's son Edgar, moved to 214
East Main Street - the building next door to the Domino Parlor. When
Edgar retired, his son Don ran the business.
Dietz customers were loyal. Until the day the business closed in 2010,
bread and pastry lovers formed a line down the street, hoping the
bakery didn't sell out before they got to the counter.
The reputation of Fredericksburg
bakeries reached far beyond Gillespie
County. The actor Jack Webb once stopped into Dietz Bakery. Arkansas
Governor Winthrop Rockefeller had Dietz bread flown to the governor's
mansion in Little Rock. |
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