The aroma of freshly baked bread wafting in the air leaves many people with an emotional wave of nostalgia, comfort, calm, and peace. For centuries, our hearths and communities have been shored up with the life-sustaining dietary staple. In an era when so many hallmarks of days past are disappearing, bakeries still hold strong.

Although home bakers abound and many retailers and coffee shops have baked goods, for this series bakeries will be defined as a business whose primary purpose is to bake breads, celebration cakes, and pastries.

The first freestanding bakery business in Transylvania County was Philipp’s Bakery established in 1909. Proprietor George Philipp (1862-1944) was a German immigrant who emigrated to the U.S. in 1888 and was naturalized in 1904. He had been living solo and working in Waynesville, NC before settling in Brevard.

The first location of Philipp’s bakery was at the corner of Main and South Caldwell streets, approximately where Mantiques is today. Philipp was successful enough to move to a location on Jordan Street that was built for him by George Hayes. Philipp lived on the upper floor of the two-story brick building, which is still standing and is currently the home of Ginger M Salon & Spa. It was said that the commercial oven he used was purchased from the Franklin Hotel.

Economic hardship was certainly a reality for everyone during this era, and as his business had ups and downs over the next several years. Brevard only seemed to have had the capacity to support one baker for any length of time, but many through the years attempted to set up bakeries themselves.

Ads for other bakers began to pop up in the local newspaper, hinting at competition. Becker’s, a Hendersonville bakery, advertised in Transylvania County apparently to enlarge their market. 1926 newspapers had one ad for Peterson’s Bakery next to the Chamber of Commerce, which was on Main Street at that time. That bakery doesn’t appear again, but in 1927 an ad for “Brevard Bakery” appears and notes the location as opposite the courthouse in the “Stokes” building, so it may have been the same location rebranded as a new bakery.

By 1928 Philipp’s was the only local bakery still advertising. Philipp’s seems to remain the go-to bakery for residents for many years. In May 1928 the Philipp’s Bakery land was sold to investors to pay back-taxes, but ads continue to show up in the paper, implying that perhaps George Philipp continued baking on the premises but as a renter.

Through the early 1930s, bakers in Asheville and Hendersonville continued to advertise in the Transylvania County paper, including Asheville’s Purity Baking Company, Hendersonville’s Becker’s Bakery, and the Asheville Baking Company. Phillipp advertised and operated up to 1936 when he returned to Germany to live with his sister and brother, due to failing eyesight limiting his ability to continue the bakery business.

In an unexpected turn of events, three years later George Philipp returned to Brevard to live. According to a few newspaper articles at the time, he was deemed to be a naturalized citizen of the U.S. as well as a burden to the state of Germany due to his impending blindness and was sent back. There was a bit of public outcry about his ill treatment, but he was able to settle with the Ed Mackey family in Little River for the remainder of his days until he passed away in 1944.

When Philipp went to Germany, a new bakery operation began in the same location. They went through a transitional identity as “Home Bakery” for a couple of months before re-branding as “New System Bakery”. This venture doesn’t appear to have lasted for more than a year, because a sprinkling of news articles in 1937 describe various community uses of the “vacant storeroom formerly occupied by Philipp’s Bakery on Jordan Street.”

By 1938 the building was being renovated to make rooms to rent on the lower floor. In that same year Pisgah Forest seems to have had a bakery for a short time called the Pisgah Bakery that was in the same building as the Pisgah Forest Post Office in 1938, though there is very little information about that business or how long it lasted.

This concludes the overview of bakeries in Transylvania County from the 1900s-1930s. The next article in the series will continue to describe Transylvania bakeries the 1940s-1960s.

Photos and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Laura Sperry, Local History Librarian. Sources available upon request.