Stop by the bakery for a sweet treat! There are cookies, fresh baked bread, hot drinks to keep off winter’s chill, and refreshing lemonade for summer. Click here for bakery hours.
This building was built in 1835 to supply bread for the village since most homes did not have bake ovens. It takes several hours to get the bake oven to heat. A fire is started in the oven and the heat is absorbed into the brick. When the oven reaches about 500 degrees Fahrenheit the coals are raked out through a metal door near the front of the oven. The bread is then added to the oven and bakes with the radiant heat. As the temperature falls cakes and pies could also have been baked. At the coolest temperature fruit could have been dried.
It is unknown whether there was a full time baker or if the bakery was communally run. In the 1830s there were Blue Laws, which forbade people from working in their trade on Sundays. So another tradesman or woman could have baked on Sundays. During the holidays the Work’s residents might have cooked large items like goose or turkey in the bake oven. It is quite possible that villagers might have brought items they made at home to be baked at the bakery. Since this was not the intended purpose of the bakery, it technically was not illegal.
Many years later the second floor of the bakery was used as a village school and was overseen by Mr. Allaire’s son, Hal. It also served as a residence for the various Boy Scout troops during the Camp Burton era of the 1920s. They carved their initials on the third floor door. During some special events hearth cooking demonstrations may be done.