Throughout the writing of these stories, several 20th-century businesses along the North High Street Historic District have been featured. This includes Jack & Harry's Hardware, Mohican Market, Triangle Shoe Store, Warsaw Restaurant, Gazda's Flower Shop, Little Frank's Automotive Store, and, most recently, Wernick Furniture. Had High Street continued to Prospect Street, Shea's Avodire would also qualify for inclusion.
Adding one more to the list is the topic of today's story, the White Eagle Bakery. This bakery is the story of Jakub (Jack) Pikul. a Polish immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in 1912 at the age of 17. He was part of a long line of Polish cooks in his family.
Mr. Pikul worked in a bakery setting most of his life, starting at Dreikorn's Bakery in South Holyoke and later at Forbes & Wallace Department Store in Springfield, MA.
After learning more about the bakery business, he became a partner in the City Bakery at 34 High Street with his father-in-law, Edward Wagner, formerly Warecki. After the company closed, Jacob Pikul opened the White Eagle Bakery in the Crafts Block at 141 High Street in 1924. His children, Edward, John, and Helen, joined their father in the baking business during the late 1930s.
The White Eagle Bakery continued for nearly 18 years, closing in 1943 during World War II when there was a shortage of available supplies for preparing bakery items. John Pikul joined the army, and his siblings, Helen and Edward, obtained employment at Worthington Pump & Machinery Corporation.
Jakub Pikul then worked as the bakery foreman at Mohican Market at 215 High Street until 1945. After the end of the war, he became a pastry chef, rising to chief pastry chef, at the Roger Smith Hotel, where his son John joined him in 1949. The hotel was noted for its pies, rolls, and cakes, a tribute to Mr. Pikul's baking skills.
Jakub Pikul continued working at the hotel until 1960, having served at the Roger Smith for 15 years and close to 45 years in the baking industry.
This blog is dedicated to the friends from my late teen years, Dave and Pete Dragon, and to the memory of their late mother, Helen.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican; publication dates and pages are shown.
Holyoke - Chicopee A Perspective, Ella Merkel Dicarlo, Publisher, Transcript-Telegram, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1982
Ancestry.com (paid subscription), Price & Lee City Directories, Holyoke, Massachusetts.
MACRIS, Massachusetts Cultural Research Information System
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