The Wonder Building tells the story of American industrialization in Spokane. Originally known as the Spokane Bakery Company, over the years Wonder became one of the largest, most modern bread bakeries in the Pacific Northwest, and it made Spokane a leader in commercial bread baking, warehousing, and distribution. The success of the Spokane Bakery forever changed the way people got bread, as baking moved from home to factory.
The oldest portion of the Wonder Building was built in 1909 on the corner of Post and Broadway, across the street from the roaring Spokane River and just a block away from the Flour Mill, where its principal ingredient for making bread was produced. The 120 X 120 foot square building was built on a foundation of rock boulders that can still be seen today. The basement this rock foundation encompasses now serves as the home of the Wonderground.
Beginning in 1917, the bakery was expanded to the west, and by 1920 the bakery extended 300 feet along Broadway, from Post to Lincoln. In 1947, a fire destroyed the second story of the western section of the building. Unfortunately, the second floor was not rebuilt, leaving the building lop-sided for the next seventy years.
The original Spokane Bakery building cost $40,000 to build, and the additions begun in 1917 and completed in 1920 an additional $150,000, a stratospheric financial outlay at the time. The owners of the bakery justified the expenditure at the time by recognizing the need for a large bakery warehouse to hold, according to a 1920 article in the Spokesman Review, the “most modern type of oven…capable of turning out 5,000 loaves [of bread] an hour.”
Bread baking occurred primarily on the first floor of the Wonder building. Other products were baked elsewhere in the building, including the famous Twinkie, which was baked on the second floor, above the garage area.
The driving force behind the construction and development of the Wonder Building was David Ackermann. Born in Germany, Ackermann moved to Boston in the late 1800’s and from there to Spokane in 1902. He was soon joined by his brother Max. The Ackermanns were experienced German bakers, and not long after their arrival in Spokane they opened the Model Bakery & Restaurant located at 819 W. Sprague Avenue in Spokane.
In 1907, the Akermanns purchased the Spokane Bakery Company, a successful bakery operation with 20 employees located at Second and Washington in Spokane. David and Max decided to divide responsibilities between their two bakery operations, with Max running the Model Bakery and David running the Spokane Bakery. Looking to expand the Spokane Bakery, David sold his existing warehouse and purchased the Wonder property for $75,000 in 1909. He then retained the noted Spokane architect Albert Held to design a new, state-of-the-art bakery there. Construction of the new bakery building was completed quickly, and the new bakery became operational that same year.
The Spokane Bakery enjoyed tremendous success, and in 1925 Ackermann sold the business to the Continental Baking Company in New York. Continental changed its name to the ITT Continental Bakery Corporation when it became a subsidiary of International Telephone & Telegraph, and by 1973 it was the largest baking company in the nation with more than 109 plants. One of the most popular products produced by the Spokane-Continental Bakery was Wonder Bread, a “signature” company product. Many Spokanites fondly remember driving by the Spokane-Continental Bakery Building and almost “tasting” the tantalizing aroma of freshly baked bread vented from the bakery’s warehouse.
In 1995, a large national bakery business, Interstate Bakeries Corporation, bought the ITT Continental Bakery Corporation. The Spokane bakery warehouse stayed open until 2000, at which time operations were terminated. The building lay vacant and in considerable disrepair for the next sixteen years, at which time it was purchased by Wonder Spokane, LLC, who embarked on a complete rehabilitation of the Building.
Wonder Spokane not only rehabilitated the building, it reimagined it as a modern office building inside a 120 year old façade, with large, open floor plans, high ceilings, and an artisan food hall to boot. Through its contractor, Yost Gallagher Construction and its architect, Wolfe Architecture Group, Wonder Spokane retained expert masons to rebuild the second floor that burned down in 1947. These masons scoured the country to find brick to match the original Wonder brick and to recreate the unique crenelation of Wonder’s original façade. To make the third floor usable as a modern office space, Wonder Spokane added a third floor on either end of the building, which is now connected to the original third floor in the middle of the building.
After completing their rehabilitation of the Wonder Building in 2018, the Wonder Building was listed it on the Spokane Register of Historic Places. Later that same year the owners of Wonder Spokane received the Rehabilitation/Urban Building Award from the Spokane Preservation Advocates for their efforts in restoring the Wonder Building.
Historical photography courtesy of Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.