Helms Bakery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olympic Bread sign on the side of the Helms Bakery in Culver City, California

The Helms Bakery in Culver City, California was a notable industrial bakery of Southern California that operated from 1931 to 1969.

In 1926, Paul Helms of New York took an early retirement for health reasons and moved his family to Southern California and its mild climate. Helms started construction on a building between Washington and Venice Boulevards in 1930 and, on March 2, 1931, the Helms Bakery opened with 32 employees and 11 delivery coaches (trucks).

By the next year, the Helms Bakery had become the "official baker" of the 1932 Summer Olympics when Paul Helms won contract to supply bread for the 1932 games in Los Angeles. Early Helms coaches sported the Olympic symbol, and it also appeared on, and was mentioned in, the Helms logo on the bread wrappers. ^[1]

Despite never being sold in stores, Helms baked products soon became known to millions of consumers. The Helms motto was "Daily at Your Door" and every weekday morning, from both the Culver City facility and a second Helms Bakery site in Montebello, dozens of Helms panel trucks, painted in a unique two-tone scheme, would leave the bakery for various parts of the Los Angeles Basin, some going as far as the eastern San Gabriel Valley. This is remarkable because the network of freeways had not yet been built, so the trip might take an hour or more. Each truck would travel through its assigned neighborhoods, with the driver periodically pulling (twice) on a large handle which sounded a distinctive whistle. Customers would come out and wave the truck down, or sometimes chase the trucks to adjacent streets. Wooden drawers in the back of the truck were stocked with fresh donuts, cookies and pastries, while the center section of the truck carried dozens of loaves of freshly-baked bread. Products often reached the buyers still warm from the oven.

Paul Helms died on January 5, 1957 at age 67, but the business continued to operate, run by family members. Its delivery network gradually grew to include Fresno to the north; San Bernardino to the east, and south to San Diego. In the company's final year of operation, a clever marketing campaign netted Helms a contract to furnish "the first bread on the moon," via the Apollo 11 space mission.

However popular, the Helms method of neighborhood delivery was doomed both by the expense of sending trucks hundreds of miles each week and by the advent of the supermarket, which stocked products from other (less expensive) bakeries, which delivered once or twice each week. The Helms company ceased operations in 1969.

The former Helms Bakery building has been repurposed into a warren of furniture showrooms, art galleries, restaurants and other retail outlets including the famed Jazz Bakery, ^[2] as well as a Helms Museum, the Gascon Theatre and the La Dijonaise restaurant. ^[3]

Other retail stores now located at the Helms Bakery District include: Alan Desk, ADP, Ashely Furniture, Boom Design, Creative Galleries, Hastens Beds, H.D. Buttercup, Jaxon, La Bella Cosa, Plummers, The Rug Warehouse, Thos. Moser Cabinetmaker, Vitra and Wall Units.

In addition to La Dijonaise restaurant and The Jazz Bakery, Helms Bakery District also features Beacon an asian cafe and Father's Office.

The facility is partly powered by solar energy.