History of Gloege Bakery
Presentation to the Annandale History Club
November, 1994
Wallace Gloege 

Wallace Gloege was our speaker in November 1994.  He gave an interesting account of the running of the Gloege Bakery.  

The Gloege Bakery began in a two story brick building in Annandale where the wood clock tower now stands on the corner of Oak Avenue [Main Street] and Cedar Street.  My father, Nolen, bought the building and business from Clarence Ferrell in 1932 and continued the baking business until 1972.  The building had two apartments upstairs and my family lived in one of them.  Most of the bakery goods were made and baked during the night hours.  The rumbling of the machines was "music" to my young ears and sleep came easily for me, but Saturday night was a different story.  The bakery was not open on Sunday so no rumbling on Saturday night could be heard.

The Gloege Bakery, sometimes called the Annandale Bakery, produced a complete line of bakery goods, all from "scratch"...even angel food wedding cakes.  Unsliced white bread was a favorite.  People often ordered 10-20 loaves and took them back to the cities.

Besides retail business, three delivery routes were established to the west and north of Annandale and in town.  Products in town were delivered by a hand pulled red wagon to grocery stores and cafes.  Many trips were needed to complete the deliveries.

In 1957 the Clard Broberg grocery store was purchased and the bakery moved to this location which was next to the old post office.  All delivery routes were discontinued and the business concentrated on retail sales in this new location.

Most of the employees of my dad's bakery lived in Annandale .  I would like to mention a few:  Fillmore Vidlund (dad's brother-in-law), Roger Nelson, Eddie Bull, Vernon (Corky) Powers, Ethel Rudolph, Donavon Lundeen, Gordon Powers, Hulda Wendorf, Hartwell Wendorf, Wendell Ponsford, Pat Kenny, and Norma Anderson.

oven peel made of wood

Since we loved above the bakery my dad never needed an alarm clock to awaken him for bakery duty. Fillmore would reach up and tap the ceiling with the long handle of the oven peel. Dad would awaken grab a shoe and pound on the floor to tell him "I am awake." The long handled peel was not needed with the gas fired oven because the revolving shelves were brought to the oven door and baked good removed by hand.

Even though the bakery was small, Dad was proud of his "barrel bread mixer," his automatic cake donut machine, and his eighteen bun pan gas-fired oven.  Some of the favorite products were; angel food cakes, unsliced white bread, Swedish Limpa, flat bread, apple kuchen, Danish coffee cakes, Texas sized raised donuts, and real cream filled puffs.

After forty years he sold the business to Wally and Rosalie Gloege who ran the business from1972-1974, Ethel Rudolph 1974-1977, and Gary Peterson 1977-1979.  On New Years Eve 1979, a fire in the apartment over the bakery left the bakery badly damaged.  The building, which Nolen still owned, was sold to Al Schulzetenberg.  Al built a new building which became part of his appliance business.  Thus ended the Gloege Bakery which faithfully served Annandale and the surrounding area for 47 years.

Respectfully submitted,
Merlyn White, Secretary 

Annandale Advocate, 5.20.1926 "Axel Tandberg, proprietor of the Sanitary Bakery, made his first trip outside with his new truck. Demands came on so strong from surrounding towns from Annandale bakery service that Mr Tandberg decided to put it on."
    Bakery owners: Tandberg, Ferrell, Gloege, Gloege, Rudolph, Peterson.

AA, 12.19.1929: Due to lack of patronage and cooperation, the Sanitary Bakery closed its doors on Wednesday evening and the proprietor, Jack Otterstein is making arrangements to move his equipment to Minneapolis, where he has leased quaters [sic] in what he considers favorable location and will open a shop.

Gloege Bakery was previously the Broberg Grocery Store.

Roger Nelson taking a pan of rolls from the gas fired oven.

Filmore Vidlund at the dough sheeter. The sheeter rolled out pieces to a specified size and saved the hand effort needed with a rolling pin.

Wally Gloege taking sheeted dough from the sheeter.

Wally Gloege and Roger Nelson placing cinnamon type of rolls on a pan of sugar. Later it was made into sugar crispies.

Roger is working the dough divider into 36 pieces, then each piece is hand shaped into desired product, weiner bun, hamburger bun, etc. Later Nolan Gloege bought a machine that cut the dough and rounded the pieces. They hand-shaped the weiner buns.

Completed products on display, including decorated cakes, everything from scratch.

One of four showcases displaying the products. There was also a showcase of day old products that the school kids would purchase for 5 cents.

Nolen Gloege and son Wallace in front of new barrel bread dough mixer. Few small bakeries had this type at that time as most were large upright mixers like the one to the left of Nolan in the photo.

Nolen and Fillmore shaping and panning bread dough loaves. All of the bread loaf products were hand wrapped with designed wax paper, then they were sent through an electric machine that sealed the bottom and ends. Later when bags with ties were used that machine was no longer used.

Dumping rolldough onto the table where products were then hand shaped.

Bread dough is being kicked out of mixer into the greased trough. It had to rise and be punched down twice, then moved to the table, cut up, rounded, raised again and then put through the loaf molder.

Nolen removing a baked product from the oven.

Folding a batch of bread dough to be punched and folded once more later.

Bread dough loaf molder.

Nolen and son Wally making up a batch of bun dough.

Proud of a 4 tier wedding cake.