Hough-love

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 03/25/2007 - 22:49.

 

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 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...

 

PD shares "What's the deal with" Hough Love

It was a funny coincidence that the morning after I posted on Hough-Love the Plain Dealer featured Hough Bakeries in the "What's the deal with" Monday morning feature, praising former Hough baker Archie Garner, who has kept the Hough flavor alive since the Bakeries closed, operating as Archie's Lakeshore Bakery... I've had many of Archie's cakes and they are outstanding... read more at the PD, which observes:

Hough Bakeries, its white boxes trimmed with blue swirls and distinctive writing, was a staple until 1992, when the company abruptly closed its 32 stores after 89 years. People still unfavorably compare other cakes by noting, "It's good, but it's not Hough."

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