Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by René Hackstetter.
A.W.Ruby City Bakery - Oysters, Toys, Wedding Cakes a Specialty, as well as Marriage Licences. (H.S.Ruby ad )
H.S.Ruby and family arrived in Midland in June of 1875. Mr. Ruby established the first bakery with fifty pounds of flour from the Lummis Mill in Wyebridge. He was also a village councillor and the first treasurer.
John Thompson, an early Midland pioneer, reminisced about Ruby’s Bake Shop in ‘Looking Backward’ a seven-page article about Midland from the 1870s to the 1930s.
“The Ruby bake shop and confectionary store,...Miss Bessie in charge,” Thompson writes. “It was here the young flappers of those days tried their wares on the poor misguided and unsuspecting young humanity they had their eyes upon for entanglement, and many the poor fly that got caught, but I never heard but what in the end was a good thing for him for Midland Girls all seem to have made fine wives.”
The Bake Shop was a centre of life and love in Midland...especially with oysters and marriage licences available.
Albert W. Ruby took over from his father, continuing well into the 1950s and still remains a fond memory for those old enough to remember the horse-drawn vehicle delivering bread.
Today, the remaining building is the Midland Avenue location north of the Beer Store with Happy Daze as a tenant. The outline of the building is still recognizable. The King Street bakery outlet, which was located next to the old Queens Hotel (School Bus Surf Shop), is long gone.
René Hackstetter (copyright) March 10, 2020.
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