Bourbon Instead of Bread: The Possible Rebirth of the Whiteside Bakery, Louisville, Kentucky

A sprawling Mission-style bakery complex, once lauded as “the finest west of New York,” appears poised for restoration and rebirth. The Whiteside Baking Company, which opened in 1908, has been purchased by a Florida-based spirits company that plans to open a distillery and tasting room in the complex on West Broadway Street. Von Payne Whiskey, a brand featuring gargoyle-topped bottles, describes the concept for the Whiteside Building as the “Von Payne Castle Distillery and Tasting Experience.”*

Circa 1930 image of the Whiteside Bakery by Caufield & Shook. Item ULPA CS_109696-97 Caufield & Shook Collection, University of Louisville Photographic Archives.

While I imagine “gothic” never crossed the mind of Isaac Whiteside, founder of the bakery, I am delighted with the news that this fascinating building may be adaptively reused.

Although I’ve driven past the former bakery building many times, I’ve never stopped to take pictures, but there are luckily archival images from the University of Louisville and the National Register of Historic Places (the building was listed in the NRHP in 1979).

Whiteside promoted the bakery and products in a number of ways. This contest was held in the summer of 1906.

Whiteside’s first bakery was part of the family grocery business in Jeffersonville, Indiana. In 1895, he opened a bakery at 14th and Maple Streets in Louisville. Demand for his bread quickly outstripped the production capacity of that building, and in 1906, the Louisville architectural firm of Clark & Loomis began working on plans for a new bakery.

The new building opened in August 1908. (Louisville Herald, 8-16-1908, page 12)

A building permit for a concrete building estimated to cost $50,000 was issued in August 1907.  Less than a year later, over 6,000 people thronged an opening night reception (and also Whiteside’s 50th birthday!) at the new bakery on July 16, 1908. Tours and free bakery goodies delighted the masses. The construction costs ended up over $140,000 for bakery, described as “one of the most remarkable plants of its kind in the entire country.”*

Circa 1979 image of the Whiteside Bakery, from the KHC survey files.

Much has been made of the choice of the Mission style for the bakery, since it was not a common architectural style in Louisville at the time. Sometimes known as the “California Mission style,” it was a revival of Spanish Colonial architecture found in California and the Southwest. Stucco walls were popular, as well as red tile roofs and bell towers.

Main entry to the Whiteside Bakery, circa 1928. Image ULPA CS_097205 in the n the Caufield & Shook Collection, University of Louisville Photographic Archives.

It was a modern style for a totally modern and up-to-date facility, where “everything has a modern, cleanly, and time-saving appearance.”* The stucco-clad, concrete building wasn’t a hulking behemoth of a factory or warehouse, which would have stuck out like a sore thumb in what was then a primarily residential neighborhood adjacent to the central business district.

Section of the 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Louisville, showing the south side of West Broadway three years before the bakery was built. The bakery would take about 1/3 of the block between S 14th (at far right in image) and S 15th Streets.

Instead, it was a long, rather low building, composed of a two-story central section with many windows, balanced by (rather squat) towers at either end. The towers (the one at the west is slightly higher) are incorporated into the facade, and have small arched openings with delicate balconies with decorative ironwork balustrades. Balconies! Could any element be less like a factory producing bread?!

A May 2019 image of the bakery from Google Streetview.

A modern style perfectly suited for a modern facility, with ovens arranged “as to make it next to impossible for any dust to enter”* – the design made a statement. Many of the elements of the building  – the towers, the tile roof, the overhanging eaves – were already appearing on bungalows and American Foursquare dwellings across Louisville.

Isaac Whiteside died one year after his modern marvel of a bakery opened. Whiteside Bakery continued production until late 1928, when it was sold to the General Baking Company of New York. Despite assurances that the name would not change, following a $300,000 remodeling, the Mother’s Bread sold by Whiteside was supplanted by Bond Bread, bearing the name of General Baking Company.

Ad from the July 15, 1920 edition of the Courier-Journal.

The third act of the Whiteside Bakery in the 20th century was the sale of the building to the Dixie Baking Company. That venture appears to have lasted only a few years. By By the mid-1980s, a portion of the building was used for an auto sales warehouse, but a general air of neglect settled about the structure.

A June 1928 ad from The Courier Journal. Later that year the bakery would be sold. The much-celebrated clock on the western tower is, alas, gone – but the gargoyles remain today!

I’ll be interested to see how the restoration/renovation proceeds – and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that this exciting news develops into a positive preservation story.

*”Thousands Inspect Whiteside Bakery,” The Louisville Herald, July 17, 1908, page 7.