Schulze Baking Company Plant is a

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

building located on the South Side of

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is located at 40 East Garfield Boulevard (also described as 55th Street and Wabash Avenue) in the Washington Park community area in

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

. Built in 1914, the building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on November 12, 1982. Originally built for the Schulze Baking Company, it was the home of the

Hostess Brands Hostess Brands is an American-based bakery company formed in 2013. It owns several bakeries in the United States that produce snack cakes under the Hostess and Dolly Madison brand names and its Canadian subsidiary, Voortman Cookies Limited, pro ...

' Butternut Bread until 2004. The building features a

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

exterior with ornamentation that pays tribute to

Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...

. The original flooring is made of reinforced

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

. In the early 21st century, the building fell into a state of disrepair. In 2016, however, a developer stated that the building was being rehabilitated for

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...

in 2017 and following years as a

data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...

Location and function

The building is located between the western edge of Washington Park and the

Dan Ryan Expressway The Dan Ryan Expressway is an expressway in Chicago that runs from the Circle Interchange with Interstate 290 (I-290) near Downtown Chicago through the South Side of the city. It is designated as both I-90 and I-94 south to 66th Street, a d ...

along a section of Garfield Boulevard that formerly hosted prominent businesses including Schulze and the Wanzer Milk Company. The area has suffered from economic decay and crime during the second half of the 20th century. One of the few significant remaining businesses in the old Black Belt during this time was Hostess, which still used the building to make Butternut Bread.

Baking company

Schulze, with its signature Butternut Bread, eventually became Interstate Bakeries Corporation/Hostess Brands. The business was once Chicago's largest

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

business entity. Although, according to

Form 10-K A Form 10-K is an annual report required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that gives a comprehensive summary of a company's financial performance. Although similarly named, the annual report on Form 10-K is distinct from the of ...

filings by the

Interstate Bakeries Corporation Old HB, Inc., known as Hostess Brands from 2009 to 2013 and established in 1930 as Interstate Bakeries Corporation, was a wholesale baker and distributor of bakery products in the United States. Before its 2012 closure and liquidation, it owned ...

with the

United States Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, the Schulze Baking Company was not formed until 1927, many records contradict this claim. Historical accounts of Chicago claim that

Paul Schulze Paul Schulze (born June 12, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in ''The Sopranos'', ''Nurse Jackie'', '' 24'' (2002–2004), and ''The Punisher'' (2017), and his films roles in ''Panic Room'' (2002), and ''Rambo'' (2008). Ca ...

, 1910-11 president of the National Association of Master Bakers, started the Schulze Baking Company in 1893 with his brothers. Interstate's own company history even confirms the 1893 beginning of Schulze. In 1912, prior to the construction of the plant, the company had four baking plants throughout the city of Chicago and general offices in the

Chicago Stock Exchange NYSE Chicago, formerly known as the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX), is a stock exchange in Chicago, Illinois, US. The exchange is a national securities exchange and self-regulatory organization, which operates under the oversight of the U.S. Sec ...

Building on

LaSalle Street LaSalle Street is a major north-south street in Chicago named for Robert de La Salle, a 17th century French explorer of the Illinois Country. The portion that runs through the Chicago Loop is considered to be Chicago's financial district. Sout ...

in the

Chicago Loop The Loop, one of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district of the city and is the main section of Downtown Chicago. Home to Chicago's commercial core, it is the second largest commercial business district in Nort ...

. In the 1910s, the company had extensive legal battles regarding protecting its

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

s. In 1921 Paul Schulze sold control of the company to

Ralph Leroy Nafziger Ralph Leroy Nafziger (November 17, 1887 – September 17, 1965) was the founder of the Hostess Brands, Interstate Bakeries Corporation, which eventually became Hostess Brands. Nafziger was born into a family of bakers on November 17, 1887, in Kan ...

. In 1930 Nafziger announced the formation of Interstate Bakeries through the merger of Schulze Baking and Western Bakeries of Los Angeles to form Interstate Bakeries. Schulze and Western continued to maintain their own separate companies under the Interstate umbrella until 1937 when Schulze formally became Interstate. Paul Schulze went on to operate small bakeries elsewhere under the name of Schulze and Burch Biscuit Company.

Architecture

The building is a white

structure designed by John Ahlschlager in 1914 for the Schulze Baking Company. The terra cotta walls were five storeys high. The building featured blue lettering, foliated

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

ornamentation, and stringcourses of rosettes. The building uses 700 windows grouped to complement the ornamentation's allusion to themes of nature and purity. The ornamentation is considered abstract,

Sullivanesque Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...

and modern. The company used Apron

conveyor A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transport of heavy or bulky materials. Conveyor systems allow ...

manufactured by the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company of

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. A lengthy low industrial complex extends northward behind the main five-story building. The structure has a flat

concrete slab A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings, consisting of a flat, horizontal surface made of cast concrete. Steel- reinforced slabs, typically between 100 and 500 mm thick, are most often used to construct floors and ...

floor with four-way reinforcement designed to support . The dimensions of the building by and it is composed of floor space segmented into by . The second floor is thick except in the square surrounding each column where it is thick. As of late 2008, the building was showing signs of wear, disrepair and neglect. At least one terra cotta

was missing, and the building had numerous walkway coverings to protect passersby from falling debris such as further terra cotta loss. One side wall was propped up with wood beams at 45 degree angles. In addition, the building had some

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

markings. However, developer Ghian Foreman stated in February 2016 that the rehabilitation of the former Schulze Baking Company plant into a data center, to be called the Midway Technology Center, was on schedule for operation in 2017. The adaptive reuse project allegedly involved the investment of more than $130 million.

Notes

External links

Official City of Chicago Washington Park Neighborhood Map
{{good article Industrial buildings completed in 1914 Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago Bakeries of the United States