As one of the 1,000,000s of people of NEO who grew up celebrating each birthday with a Hough Bakery cake (I especially remember one of a baseball diamond, with little plastic baseball players), redeveloping the old Hough Bakery headquarters [1] on Lakeview Avenue, in East Cleveland and Cleveland, brings me a feeling if great pride and nostalgia - not to mention the sense former Hough Bakery founder Lionel Pile and his son Robby Pile are looking over my shoulder whenever I am there. So, when I first toured the building, I was looking for signs of past-life... and there are many, even dating before Hough owned the property, to the original Star Baking Company.
Back to the Hough Bakery... the most astounding find there was a cache of original Hough Bakery boxes of various sizes, still sealed in the old box printing plant, which was on site. With that at my disposal, I had an idea for raising funds for the redevelopment project for the property - sell the boxes to those who have as strong and good of memories of the old blue and white as do I... still want to celebrate the paradise lost of innocent backyard birthdays, cake, pettifores for all occasions, and sugar cookies. So, we're bringing a touch of that back to life in NEO, to raise funds for saving the historic Hough Bakery property, and helping redevelop the surrounding neighborhood. I'm sure the Piles will be proud - more details to post soon...
