Many families that immigrated to the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s, especially those from Italy, Holland, and Germany, found their way in America by opening small, independent bakeries. Decades later, many of those bakeries are still thriving, often run by new generations of the original owners’ families. Bakeries are an essential part of communities across the country – these are some of the oldest that are still going strong, often more than 100 years after they first opened. 

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the most historic bakery near you, counting down to the oldest of them all.

We’ve based our selections and ranking on each bakery’s claimed founding date, taking into account the age of the business and how long the property has been serving food.

Helm's launched in 1931 and was the original supplier for the 1932 Summer Olympics, hence why its initial signage and logo featured the famous Olympic rings. A bakery until its closure in 1969, when the site began housing a selection of restaurants and furniture stores, in 2024 chef Sang Yoon opened a reimagined Helm's Bakery with a menu of artisan cakes, pastries, pies, and sourdough baguettes, as well as a deli area for customers to enjoy coffee and freshly made light meals.

One of the oldest bakeries in Arkansas, the Magnolia Bakeshop has been in operation since 1928 and is now run by the third generation of the Stroope family. Famous for its pecan pies, beautifully decorated butter cookies, and gingerbread people, the bakery is also known for its impressive occasion cakes. 

This Metro Detroit area bakery was opened by Jim Bommarito in 1925, primarily as a means to sell lemon ice, gelato, cookies, and wedding cakes, all of which are still on the menu, along with pizza, subs, and other treats. Bommarito isn’t a fussy or fancy bakery; rather, it’s all about solid but delicious baked goods that make customers feel nostalgic for the simplicity of childhood.

Helen Bernhard started making cakes as a hobby in the early 1920s and opened her bakery in 1924, later selling the business to her son Ben. It stayed in the family until 1988, when it was sold to the Laufers. Helen Bernhard Bakery still specializes in elaborately decorated cakes, although the old-fashioned designs have been swapped for brightly colored unicorns and cakes that look like anything from a hamburger to an eyeball. For those after a quick treat, the bakery also sells cookies, bread, and assorted pastries.

Schmidt’s does sell items like pies, bread, and cupcakes, but this small-town Minnesota bakery that opened way back in 1923 is best known for its donuts. The bakery uses original Schmidt family recipes (and claims that almost all members of the extended family have worked behind the counter at some point) and customers flock from all over the state to pick up crullers, glazed donuts, donut holes, and other delights.

Plehn’s is a family-run bakery that was founded by a German-born baker in 1922. It moved to its current location in 1924 and continues to serve as an all-purpose bakery, making buns and bread as well as carefully decorated cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and seasonal items to celebrate every holiday imaginable. It was one of the few bakeries not to be shut down by the Louisville flood of 1937, when it stepped up to make bread to feed people all over the city.

Philadelphia has a great selection of old-school bakeries, including this retro shop that opened in 1921. Family-owned for three generations, the bakery was founded by brothers Giuseppe and Gaetano Termini who developed a reputation for making ornate wedding cakes. Today, the shop does a brisk mail order business as well as counter service at multiple locations, selling cookies, cannoli, and cakes.

The Kruta family originally opened their bakery in East St. Louis, Illinois in 1919, but it relocated to Collinsville in 1974. The family was originally from Russia, but the bakery’s founder, Frank Kruta Sr., trained as a baker in Germany. As a result, many of the bakery’s specialties are traditional German desserts like stollen and German chocolate cake, though it also makes Russian kolache and treats from many other parts of Europe.

Established in 1915 by Juan More, La Segunda Central Bakery is all about great Cuban bread. Operated by the fourth generation of the More family, the bakers celebrate their Cuban heritage with traditional Cuban loaves and buns, as well as sweeter treats like custard horns, guava turnovers, flan, and bread pudding. The adjacent café serves juicy Cuban-style sandwiches on the bakery’s fresh bread.

As the oldest bread bakery in West Virginia, Tomaro’s sells beautiful loaves but is most celebrated for its pepperoni rolls. Pepperoni rolls, a regional specialty of the Appalachians, are essentially a yeasty white roll filled with pepperoni. While Tomaro’s didn’t invent them, the savory treat has helped to keep the Clarksburg bakery in business since 1914.

Taylor’s started life as a grocery store in 1913, founded by a man named Dennis O. Taylor who was looking for a business that would help support his family. Currently run by his two great grandsons, Taylor’s is a solid Midwestern bake shop producing cakes, cookies, donuts, breads, and other baked goods. The shop also has its own line of ice cream and even makes dog treats.

The Egidio Pastry Shop hasn’t just existed since 1912, but it’s sat at the same location on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx for the entirety of its lifespan. A cornerstone of the local Italian community, the bakery stocks various biscotti, cartoccio, cannoli, croissants, and New York classics like black and white cookies and cheesecake.

A Florida institution since 1912, this bakery was founded by Nicolo Alessi shortly after he immigrated to the United States from Italy. Even though Alessi started with Italian and Cuban bread, the bakery’s specialty soon became elaborately decorated cakes, perfect for weddings and other special occasions. While the spot started as a small bake shop it has expanded significantly, with a deli counter, catering division, and a café area, all run by the fourth generation of the Alessi family.

Chicago is a city with a robust culinary history, so being named the city’s oldest family-run bakery still in its original location is nothing to sniff at. Roeser’s iconic neon sign didn’t go up until 1946, but the bakery itself was opened in 1911 by John Roeser Sr (it’s now run by John Roeser IV). It was the first bakery in Chicago with a freezer and the first with air conditioning, allowing its signature cakes and pastries to stay pristine in the bake case.

The original Palmieri’s Bakery was opened in Providence in 1905 by Domenico Palmieri, whereas D. Palmieri’s in Johnston was actually opened by Domenico’s grandson, Domenic some years later. Italian bread dominates here, along with Rhode Island–style 'cold' or 'bakery' pizza, often decorated so that the toppings form a picture of a cartoon character or other intricate design. The pizza designs are the work of Eric Palmieri, Domenic Palmieri’s grandson.

Cannoli is standard fare at many Italian bakeries, but at Isgro Pastries the award-winning treat truly is the house specialty. Founded in 1904 by the Isgro family (who still run it today), the bakery also makes traditional Italian butter cookies, pignoli, pasticcini, and other tasty bites. Holidays are a big deal at Isgro and the staff enthusiastically decorate the storefront window for special occasions.

Italian family bakeries can be found in every corner of the US, and Cleveland is no exception. A jewel of the city’s Italian community, the Presti family opened their bakery in 1903, specializing in fresh bread. The bakery grew to include a café in 1999 and now sells sandwiches and pizza made with its famous bread, as well as traditional Italian cookies, cannoli, and ice cream.

Tennessee’s oldest family-owned bakery, Dutch Maid is beloved for its country charm and a selection of scratch-made salt-rise breads, cakes, pastries, and Southern-style treats. The recipes are the same ones that the original owner John Baggenstoss used when he opened the bakery in 1902, even though the business was purchased by a new owner in 2005. Some restoration work was necessary, but the new management was careful to retain the original down-home feel of the bakery.

There are a number of very old, traditional Dutch bakeries across America, including this shop in a small city in Iowa. Jaarsma’s baking case is filled with buttery almond cookies, crème horns, puff pillows, Dutch Letters, and other Dutch specialties that have been sold at the family-owned bakery since it first opened in 1898. Jaarsma is so iconic in Pella that it even sells ceramic cookie jars shaped like the shop itself.

A New York icon, Veniero’s proudly dates back to 1894. It started as an espresso and candy bar, but founder Antonio Veniero soon started selling biscotti and eventually cakes and pastries (made by proper pastry chefs) were added to the mix. The café expanded over the years and now sells a wide variety of treats, but is most famous for its cannoli and classic New York–style cheesecake.

New York City is rich with excellent old-school Italian bakeries and Café Ferrara is one of the oldest. The shop is lined with Italian specialties like cannoli, tiramisu, sfogliatella, lobster tail pastries, and biscotti. The bakery opened in 1892 as a place to enjoy an espresso and a treat after the opera and is often billed as America’s first espresso bar. It’s currently run by the fifth generation of the original owner’s family, so they must be doing something right.

Many older bakeries specialize in very traditional European treats, but Bredenbeck’s has mastered the art of modern cake decoration. The shop was first opened in 1889 by Frederick Robert Bredenbeck, an immigrant from Bavaria. Bredenbeck later sold it to two former employees from the Haug family, who opened the current Bredenbeck’s location in 1983. Keeping up with the times, Bredenbeck’s expanded its offering to include ice cream in 1985.

Wolferman’s has become a slick brand with fans all over the United States, but the company started as a humble corner grocery store back in 1888. Its trademark items are its super-thick English muffins, which are made the same way today as they were by founder Louis Wolferman. The brand is also renowned for its cinnamon rolls and other pastries, all of which can be shipped around the country.

Known as the godfather of from-scratch bakeries in New England, Lyndell’s first opened in 1887. For 45 years it was operated by Swedish founder Birger C. Lindahl, who changed his name to the easier to spell Lyndell when he started his business. The European-style bakery specializes in custom cakes and also makes tarts, eclairs, muffins, and other pastries.

LeJeune’s Bakery has been baking its core specialties in the same way since the LeJeune family opened the bakery in 1884. French bread, garlic bread, burger and hot dog buns, and small ginger cakes are the only items on the menu and everything is made by hand the old-fashioned way, by the fifth generation of LeJeune bakers. The shop is considered to be so important that it was the first bakery in Louisiana to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Staten Islanders will probably best remember Holtermann’s by the orange baking trucks that used to deliver bread around the area. The trucks are now retired, but customers can still come to the bakery (which opened in 1878) for both sandwich and rustic breads, simple and special occasion cakes, cookies, pies, and showcase desserts like Charlotte russe and cream puffs.

Kirchhoff’s started off as an old-world bread bakery – it was founded in 1873 by Franz Kirchhoff, an immigrant to the US from Prussia. Still run by the same family, freshly made bread continues to be Kirchhoff’s main business, but it also sells cookies and dessert bars, sweet and savory pastries, and house-made crackers and pizza crusts.

Naegelin’s is so old that its founder fought in the Civil War. Located in the city of New Braunfels, near San Antonio, the oldest bakery in Texas was opened in 1868 by Edouard Naegelin Sr., who originally delivered bread to customers’ homes by simply dropping loaves on their porches. A wide variety of bread is still on the menu, along with coffee cake, donuts, and custom-made special occasion cakes, as well as fresh tortillas.

Some bakeries make a little bit of everything, but the Sturgis family business has always been focused on pretzels. Established in 1861, Julius Sturgis is America’s first commercial pretzel bakery, made even more historical because it’s housed in a building built in 1784. Today Julius Sturgis is a tourist destination, but it does sell pretzels made by the nearby Tom Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, founded in 1946 by Julius Sturgis’ grandson, Marriott.

The oldest bakery in central Illinois, Trefzger’s opened in 1861 and was soon feeding bread to troops stationed in the area during the Civil War. Brightly colored thumbprint cookies are the house specialty, but the bakery also makes plenty of other cookies, cakes, pies, and sweet breakfast pastries. Trefzger’s has moved locations a few times over the years, but the current spot is in an appropriately vintage heritage building that is nearly as old as the business itself.

San Francisco’s most famous bakery is also one of its oldest. Boudin, established in 1849, is the originator of Sand Francisco sourdough bread, a hybrid of traditional sourdough and French bread. The bakery carefully guards its mother dough, which is as old as the bakery itself, and gives each loaf its rise and tangy flavor. Boudin now has multiple locations throughout California.

America's oldest operating bakery is now part of the Old Salem Museums and Gardens, but still churns out baked goods including sugar cakes, cookies, muffins, strudels, and all kinds of bread (albeit with limited opening hours). In 1807, Swiss baker Christian Winkler bought the bakery that the Moravian Church built in 1799; the bakery stayed in the family until 1926 and is not only still open today, but uses the original wood-fired brick oven installed all those years ago.

Now discover the bakery with the best bread in every state

Last updated by Dominique Ayling.