Schmidt Baking Company, 1301 Laurens Street, Baltimore, Independent City, MD

Significance: The Schmidt Bakery was the product of the most modern techniques in industrial design, assembly line production, marketing, and corporate structure: the first instance of the marriage of these elements in the Baltimore baking industry. Indeed, the entire history of the Schmidt Baking Company illustrates well the history of baking in Baltimore in general, from a small family-run concern to the largest bakery in the region, one that has outgrown its earlier complex. This building was constructed in 1913-14 for Schmidt's when it was, for a short time, a division of the City Baking Company conglomerate. Designed by John Freund, Jr., a little-known Baltimore architect whose specialty seems to have been industrial buildings, and especially bakeries, this bakery is probably his most significant surviving industrial design.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N957
Survey number: HAER MD-80
Building/structure dates: ca. 1887 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1914 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1945 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1949 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1960 Subsequent Work