The Scrace's Bakery and Cafe Records, 1893-1927

A Register of the Collection at the
Utah State Historical Society
The machine-readable finding aid for this collection was created by the Collections Management staff, Utah State Historical Society.

Utah State Historical Society
Salt Lake City, Utah

Copyright, 2005, Utah State Historical Society. All rights reserved.
Reproduction, storage or transmittal of this work, or any part of it, in any form or by any means, for commercial purposes, is prohibited without prior authorization of the Utah State Historical Society. This work may be used for scholarly and other non-commercial use provided that the Utah State Historical Society is acknowledged as the creator and copyright holder.
Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Summary Description
Repository:Utah State Historical Society
Call number:Mss B 1357
Creator: Scrace's Bakery and Cafe
Title:Scrace's Bakery and Cafe Records, 1893-1927
Quantity:.5 lin. ft. (1 box)
Note: Both items in the collection are originals
Abstract:The collection includes two account ledgers, probably from Scrace's Bakery and Cafe.

Topics:
Business enterprise--Utah

Persons:
Rosell, Charles J.
Saunders, Ephraim Louis
Scrace, Edward

Places:
Salt Lake City, Utah

Form or Genre:
Account ledgers
Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Background

Background Note

The second ledger in the collection that covers the finances of the company from 1921-1927 has names of individuals who received wages. Comparing those names to the Salt Lake City directory showed that one individual was employed at "Scraces," another was a baker, and another was a waiter. Thus, the common denominator seems to indicate Scrace's Bakery and Cafe is the creator of the ledgers.
Scrace's Bakery was founded by Edward Scrace, a baker who is listed in the Salt Lake City directory in 1885. However, it is clear the bakery existed in 1883, when it was engulfed in a massive fire in the block south of Temple Square. The fire quickly spread through the block just after midnight on 21 June. It began at Clawson's Wagon Depot and quickly spread to Savage's Art Gallery. At 12:30 a.m. an explosion knocked two firefighters off the roof of Scrace's bakery. The fire reached probably as much as 25 barrels of powder stored at the Wagon Depot on the block. As The Salt Lake Tribune reported, the explosion "shook the buildings like a strong stroke from a battering ram for two blocks around, but the devastation it wrought in the near vicinity was complete." The only window panes left were two panes of glass at ZCMI. No one was seriously injured, but the fire changed the city's firefighting system from a volunteer service to paid, professional firefighters.
By 1885, Edward Scrace had rebuilt his bakery that also went by the name Excelsior Bakery. Scrace kept his bakery at the 10 S. Main Street location until 1900, when he moved down the street to 24 S. Main Street. The bakery stayed under Scrace until he sold it around 1903 to Ephraim L. Saunders and Charles J. Rosell, a clerk and a baker for Scrace, respectively. By 1910, Scrace's Baking Company advertised itself as "Fine Confectionary and Bakery Goods, Wedding Cakes a Specialty."
Presumably, Edward Scrace developed his career outside of Utah after he sold the bakery to Saunders and Rosell. In 1905, the Salt Lake City directory lists an Edward Scrace as vice president of McDonald Chocolate Company in Los Angeles.
In 1913, Saunders and Rosell incorporated the bakery as "Scrace's Bakery and Cafe" to manufacture, buy, sell and deal in pastry, bread, cakes, pies, biscuits, crackers, and confectionery, and all other food products, and to furnish and serve meals and refreshments of every kind and nature, and to buy and sell baking and food products at both wholesale and retail, and to carry on any other business designed in any way to promote the objects and purposes above named.
The inactive corporation cards indicate that "Scrace Bakery and Cafe" was involuntarily dissolved in 1974. The company had been inactive since 1928, when it stopped paying taxes but failed to formally dissolve itself. Edward Scrace had been vice president of McDonald Chocolate Company in Los Angeles until his death on 16 March 1928, after which Scrace's Bakery no longer appears in the Salt Lake City directory. Ephraim L. Saunders went on to form Saunders-Mecham Investment Company, working in that venture presumably until his death in 1951.
Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Scope and Content

The collection includes two account ledgers, probably from Scrace's Bakery and Cafe. It appears the bakery did business with large vendors, including ZCMI and the Salt Lake LDS Temple.
Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation:

Scrace's Bakery and Cafe Records, 1893-1927, Utah State Historical Society.

Acquisition Information:

Gift of Dean Allgeyer, 5 October 2001.

Restrictions on Use

The Scrace's Bakery and Cafe Records are the physical property of the Utah Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah. Literary rights, including copyright, may belong to the authors or their heirs and assigns. Please contact the Historical Society for information regarding specific use of this collection.

Processing Information:

Collection processed by Melissa Ferguson, 2005

Finding aid compiled by Melissa Ferguson, 2005

Finding aid edited by Linda Thatcher, 2005

Collection cataloged by Linda Thatcher, 2005

Finding aid encoded for the World Wide Web by Craig Ringgenberg, 2005

Sources

Home Fire Insurance Company, Exterior. Photograph, Shipler Commercial Photographers, 2 November 1910.

Nichols, Jeffrey D. "1883 Blaze Spurred Creation of Salt Lake City's Professional Fire Department." Utah History To Go, available at http://historytogo.utah.gov/. Accessed July 2005.

Polk Salt Lake City Directories, 1869-1930.

The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 June 1883.

Saunders, Ephraim Louis, Obituary, Deseret News, 21 March 1951.

Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code, Inactive Corporation Cards, 1871-1988. Utah History Research Center, Series 16658, Reel 27.

Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code, Incorporation Case Files, 1871-[ongoing]. Utah History Research Center, Series 7184, Box 62, File 10323.

Utah History Research Center Cemetery Burials Database, available at http://history.utah.gov/utah_history_research_center/cemetery_burials/index.html. Accessed July 2005.
Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Container list

1

1

Bookkeeping ledger, 1 June 1893 to 21 June 1909

1

2

Bookkeeping ledger (cash), 1 January 1921