wonder bread, part one {september 8, 2022}

After dropping T off at the airport, I didn’t want to drive in the crazy interstate traffic around Columbus so I got off of I-670 as soon as I could. My off-the-beaten-path route took me through the historic Italian Village. I had time on my hands so I found a free parking spot (lucky me…few and far between), got out of my car and strolled round this charming neighborhood. 

At the turn of the century Italian Village was a melting pot of Italian, Irish, and African immigrants who worked, lived, shopped, and worshipped in this early suburb of Columbus. This neighborhood was defined by its industrial warehouses, spotted with Italian Catholic churches, a few retail buildings, and a mix of single- and multi-family residential properties. 

A big eye catcher in Italian Village is the Wonder Bread sign. You can see it from the interstate. Between 1890 and 1930, many residents of Italian Village worked for the Jeffery Mining Company, the largest employer in Italian Village which employed 2,500 people at its peak. Thousands and thousands of workers reported to work every day to help build coal mining machinery, and Jeffery Mining Company needed a way to feed all those employees, hard at work. In 1916, they built a bread factory across the street. All those Jeffery Mining employees were working up large appetites, and the company needed a way to keep everyone going. This bakery site produced baked goods for the Jeffery Mining Company and its company cafeteria. It also provided baked goods for the company’s cooperative employee store. At its peak, the bread factory produced up to 5,000 loaves per day.

Throughout the years, this bread factory changed names and owners many times. In 1920, it was known as “The Columbus Bread Company” and three years later it changed hands to the “Holland Bread Company.” In 1929, it became the “Ward Brothers Company” and finally, in 1934 Wonder Bakeries were handed the keys, which is when this building first became home to the Wonder Bread name we know and love today. At Wonder Bread’s peak, this facility churned out no fewer than several thousand loaves per minute. This huge volume of bread was then quickly shipped across the United States. 

In 2009, the Wonder Bread Factory stopped baking. Wonder Bread’s parent company, Interstate Bakeries Corporation, closed the Columbus factory, along with a sister factory in Missouri. 

During this time, the American bread industry saw a drop in bread purchases, as Americans became more health conscious (and afraid of carbs.) Since the Columbus factory didn’t have the ability to bake Wonder Bread’s new all-natural bread line, they had no choice but to close their doors.

Today, the iconic Wonder Bread Factory, has been transformed into a hot spot apartment building, the Wonder Bread Lofts.