PORTLAND, Ore. — Helen Bernhard Bakery is celebrating 100 years of business this year. The bakery was established in 1924 by Helen Bernhard, baking cakes for neighbors and friends.
In the earlier years, the Bernhard family lived in the house next to the current bakery on Northeast Broadway.
"I think she would be 143 today, so she was one of the original woman-owned businesses in Portland," said Michael Snaadt, the current owner of the bakery.
Snaadt said the recipe for a business thriving for a century starts with knowing who Helen Bernhard was.
"She was pretty fiery; she had men working for her. She was a short little German lady that was sweet, but also stern and knew how to run a business," Snaadt said.
Bernard was a minister's wife who started baking cakes for family and friends in the early 1900s at the original location of the bakery, the Bernhard house.
"It was actually located right next door; there's an old house that was built 1900 or earlier," Snaadt said. "There was a little tiny garage on the side that she sold out of for the first probably 15 years."
Then the current bakery was built and has become a part of the community. It has become a spot for generations of families to buy sugary centerpieces for all the special occasions.
"We go from gender reveal cakes, to first birthdays, to 16th birthdays, to graduation, from high school graduation to wedding announcements," Snaadt said. "Probably the hardest part is after 14 years, I've lost a few customers that we won't see and then somebody will order something for a memorial and I was like, 'Oh, that was a special person to me.'"
Head baker Rob Fisher is one of many who has fulfilled those orders.
"A lot of our longtime regular customers have come and gone," Fisher said.
He said many things have changed outside of the building, but inside, things have remained largely the same.
"For as long as I've worked here, same type of cookies, same type of cakes. We really don't like to change anything," he said.
Fisher knows a thing or two about what has happened in the bakery. Just ask him when he started working there.
"That was 1978. I believe Jimmy Carter was president," Fisher said.
Not too long after that is when Rhonda Sater first walked through the bakery's doors. She has been buying baked goods at Helen Bernhard Bakery for 35 years and is happy things haven't changed.
"If it's not broken, don't fix it," Sater said.
The bakery will be highlighting a special cake and its history each month. The treats will be available at a "celebration price."