WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Just a few feet away from downtown Winston-Salem, you can step back in time in Old Salem. And a special place for all to visit during their time here is a small building with a ton of history, the Winkler Bakery.
Originally built in 1799 and founded by Christian Winkler in 1807, the bakery is still selling Moravian sugar cakes and other customer favorites over 200 years later.
Back in the 1800s, the bakery played a crucial role for the town.
Sister Deborah Crews has been helping run the bakery for the past 15 years.
“Bread was the mainstay of life,” Crews explained. “Bread is what kept people in this world from starving at that time. It was harder to come by food than it is now. So the bakery was a busy part of town, and it kept people sustained.”
And with all the baking to be done, they needed an oven capable of handling the workload.
“Behind me is the beehive brick oven,” Crews said. “It is the largest oven in Salem. It is 9 ft deep, 7 ft wide, 2 ft in the dome. They would have come down at 3 in the morning, built a huge fire, burnt it all the way to ashes, cleaned out the ashes, and they actually were baking from the heat of the bricks.”
While the baked goods are the main attractions for most visiting Old Salem, Sister Deborah enjoys being here for another reason.
“I want to keep it alive in people’s hearts and in their minds,” Crews said. “Children coming in, you can plant a seed, even adults, and they will go back and look it up, and they will have a memory that will last a lifetime. At the end of the day the time you spend and the memories you share, it’s worth everything.”