What happened to the famous honey bread bakery in Kansas City?

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A century ago, when Kansas City residents bought bread, they often got it from the Smith family.

In 1888, B. Howard Smith opened the first Smith’s Steam Bakery on East 17th Street.

When this postcard was published some twenty years later, he owned a chain of thirty bakeries. Three of them were local, most notably this one on the northeast corner of 18th & Cherry Street.

What made it so clean?

Hard to say, but according to their advertising, they used something called lino felt to insulate the bread rooms and installed special ovens that regulated the temperature during the baking process.

And, get this, they even made their own cockroach repellent!

Honey bread was apparently Smith’s trademark. After 1908, the bakery also began producing Holsum bread, licensed from an Arizona-based brand.

In 1926, the New York-based General Baking Company bought the business, which was then run by Smith’s son Bryce.

Four years later, he was elected mayor of Kansas City. Despite claims to the contrary, Smith was closely tied to Tom Pendergast’s powerful political machine.

General finally closed the plant in 1958. The complex stood vacant until the mid-1960s, when the Unitog Corporation purchased it to manufacture uniforms.

Ironically, this important part of the city’s dining history has now become nothing more than a large wasteland, even as new places to eat, drink and socialize continue to pop up in the East Crossroads neighborhood.

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