Sturgis Pretzel House

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The Sturgis Pretzel House of Lititz, Pennsylvania is the oldest commercial pretzel bakery in the United States.^[1] Started in 1861, ^[2] it remains active in producing pretzels for commercial sale, as well as being a tourist attraction.

[edit] History

In 1850 Julius Sturgis owned a bread business in Lititz Pennsylvania. That year he provided a homeless man with dinner.^[3] Legend says that the hobo had been on a train that went behind the bread business, and got off the train after seeing the bakery to get food and a job^[4], however Julius did not have a job available, but nonetheless fed the hobo. The hobo in return gave Julius a pretzel recipe. He had never baked pretzels before, so he tested the recipe out on his family and added pretzels to his bakery, and by 1861 the recipe had proven to be so popular that Julius stopped his bakery to make pretzels; he started the first commercial pretzel business in the United States.^[5]

To this day the Sturgis family still bakes pretzels using the same recipe Julius used to start his pretzel bakery in 1861. Marriott Sturgis, born in 1910, was Julius's grandson. He was nicknamed "Tom Sturgis" because he worked alongside his uncle Tom Keller and they had similar baking styles. Tom's family moved to Reading, Pennsylvania where Tom continued to work in pretzel bakeries, eventually he — with his brother Correll — opened their own pretzel bakery in 1936 called "Sturgis Brothers". However, Tom had to close down the "Sturgis Brothers" due to the drafts for WWII ^[6]

After serving in a munitions factory during World War Two, Tom Sturgis continued the pretzel baking industry and opened another bakery called "Tom Sturgis Pretzels". The business is still in operation today, run by Tom's son and grandson. The Sturgis family also manages Julius Sturgis's original pretzel bakery.^[7]

[edit] Location

Besides being the first commercial pretzel bakery in the United States, the Sturgis Pretzel House has a long history. The building was built in 1784 by Er Bauet Von Peterkreiter and is one of the original structures in Lititz. The house was built from stones taken from the streets and from the surrounding timber forest; it had windows to fire muskets to prevent against Native American attacks. The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery is on the list of National Register of Historic Places.^[8][9] Since 1850, pretzels have been made in Lititz with a recipe derived from French monasteries.

[edit] References