Schulze Baking Company Building
Address: 40 East Garfield Boulevard
Architect: John Ahlschlager & Son
Date: 1915
Style: Sullivanesque
Neighborhood: Washington Park
Schulze Baking Company Building
Address: 40 East Garfield Boulevard
Architect: John Ahlschlager & Son
Date: 1915
Style: Sullivanesque
Neighborhood: Washington Park
Overview
Prominently located at the corner of East Garfield Boulevard and South Wabash Avenue, the Schulze Baking Company Plant has served as a Washington Park visual landmark for over a century. Built in 1914 and designed by prominent architecture firm John Ahlschlager & Son, the five-story bakery is clad in cream and blue terra cotta and glazed brick, lending the building a hygienic and modern appearance. The building bolstered the company’s baking efforts, allowing them to produce 150,000 loaves of bread a day using cutting edge and highly-efficient technology. Thanks to this notable flagship baking plant, the Schulze Baking Company was synonymous with quality bread and became a part of Chicago’s rich food production history.
The Schulze Baking Company Plant has been closed since 2004. In 2015, plans for the adaptive reuse of the structure as a data center were announced. However, almost a decade later, the building has remained unoccupied and is now for sale. This vacancy has resulted in the building’s slow decay, both inside and out. Full restoration and reuse of this historic structure must be pursued by its new owner to ensure a new future for the Schulze Baking Company Plant.
Read the full story at Preservation Chicago’s website
- Schulze Baking Company Building, a Preservation Chicago 2024 Chicago 7 Most Endangered Chapter
- What’s That Building? Schulze Bakery; The former home of Schulze Baking Company, and a succession of other breadmakers, has sat unused for two decades — and is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future, Dennis Rodkin, WBEZ Chicago, 4/15/24