🥖 The Bakery With the Outdoor Oven — and the Earthquake Crack
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
A warm slice of early Main Street life
Long before Main Street took its modern shape, Gull Lake had a little bakery that left a lasting mark on the town’s early years. Shilling’s Bakery — located on the south side of Main Street, midway between Proton Avenue and Rutland Avenue — entered a new chapter in October 1910, when it changed ownership and was soon rebuilt after a fire just six weeks later.
Today, the street has changed, but the bakery’s place in that central stretch of Main Street remains part of our early history.
It began simply: fresh bread baked daily, an outdoor oven sending warm aromas onto the street, and a small building that served both as a workplace and a home. Living quarters filled the second floor, while the main floor held a sales counter, a marble‑topped soda fountain, and an ice cream parlour with marble tables and wire chairs. The bakery itself was tucked into the back, where the real work happened.
Among its most memorable features was the soda fountain—the pride of the shop — with a long, jagged crack running through its marble top. “The soda fountain top had a large crack through its middle, said to have happened as the result of a small earthquake…” No earthquake was ever officially recorded in the Gull Lake area, but the story lives on—a small mystery from the early 1910s that added character to a place where residents once gathered for ice cream and conversation.
For those who lived in Gull Lake during that era, the aroma of fresh bread drifting from the outdoor oven became part of daily life. It paints a picture of a Main Street still finding its shape—wooden sidewalks, horses tied along the avenue, and a bakery offering both necessities and small luxuries.
At Christmas, the ice cream parlour transformed into a seasonal shop filled with toys and decorations. In summer, the marble tables offered a cool place to sit. And year‑round, the bakery served as a small anchor point in a young prairie town that was still growing, shifting, and defining itself.
The building burned twice—once shortly after the 1910 transition and again in 1957—and by the time the next generation came along, the bakery existed only in stories and photographs. But its place in Gull Lake’s early identity remains clear: a reminder that even in the town’s earliest years, Main Street had its own flavour, its own gathering spots, and its own small moments of everyday life.
Some buildings disappear. Others leave a trace — a story, a scent, a cracked marble countertop — that becomes part of the town’s long memory.
If you’ve heard stories about the old bakery—or remember the scent of fresh bread from later shops—please share them. These memories are the threads that keep our local history alive.
Blake Campbell
Source: Gull Lake Memories: A History of the Town of Gull Lake
💡 This is just one of the many stories shaping life in Gull Lake.
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Sponsorship Note: This editorial is brought to you by Gull Lake Events. This platform is made possible through the support of my local business, Campbell’s Accommodations. We believe in the importance of local news and are proud to help keep Gull Lake informed and connected.
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