DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Old Bakery in Travis County. Now settle in, because even a building about bread can hold a story worth savoring. This place goes back to 1876, when a man named Chas.
Lundberg put up what would become one of Austin's more aromatic corners. And I want you to picture that for a moment — 1876, no sliced bread, no plastic wrap, no wax paper bags with twist ties. Bread then was not sliced or wrapped.
That's not me editorializing, that's the marker talkin'. So how did it get home? Children and maids waited outside with baskets to carry the loaves back while they were still hot from the oven.
Think about that the next time you pull a cold brick of sandwich bread off a grocery shelf. Now Lundberg wasn't just cranking out plain loaves and calling it a day. The house specialties at this place were sponge cake ladyfingers, glazed kisses, and almond-meal macaroons.
Glazed kisses. In 1876. Austin was doing just fine.
Years passed, as years tend to do, and a later baker named Henry Maerki came to run the place. And Maerki, he had a particular gift for seizing a moment — because that front balcony the building wore in those days gave him an elevated view right out over the street. So when the parades came rolling through, Maerki was up there with a camera.
Including one in 1901 for none other than U.S. President William McKinley. A sitting president, rolling past an Austin bakery, while the baker leaned over the balcony rail and clicked the shutter.
That balcony has since been razed, gone the way of a lot of things. But the building itself? Still standing.
It's now the Austin Heritage Society's Tourist Information Center. Started as an oven, ended as a landmark. Some buildings just know how to stick around.
What the marker says
Old Bakery, built 1876 by Chas. Lundberg. Bread then was not sliced or wrapped; children and maids waited with baskets to take home loaves hot from the oven. House specialties were sponge cake ladyfingers, glazed kisses, almond-meal macaroons. A front balcony (since razed) permitted a later baker, Henry Maerki, to photograph parades, including one in 1901 for U.S. President William McKinley. Now Austin Heritage Society's Tourist Information Center. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966