This photograph from The East Hampton Star archive shows the F.H. Warner Bakery, sometimes known as the Montauk Bakery, when it stood next to the Methodist Church, near Hook Mill. The building shown was constructed as a bakery in 1893, with an apartment for the baker upstairs. Up until that point, East Hampton residents relied on a horse-drawn bakery cart sent from Sag Harbor.
The Star described the future building in March 1893, noting that its oven would be 12 feet by 12 feet. By May of that year, the first baker, Alexander Langner, was able to send a bakery wagon with his goods around the village. By June, Langner had sold the business to Jeremiah Dominy (1863-1943).
The bakery’s early years saw much turnover, with other bakers being brought in to manage or bake for the shop. Ferdinand (Frank) Hausbeck Warner (1873-1939) arrived with his family to manage the bakery by 1900, according to the newspaper advertisements.
By 1901, Warner’s advertising used the name “Montauk Bakery,” although this photo from 1902 clearly shows a sign reading “F.H. Warner Bakery and Confectionary.” Warner’s Montauk Bakery offered bread, biscuits, rolls, cakes, macaroons, lady fingers, and “fancy crackers.”
Warner’s bakery was successful enough to allow him to expand into other services and locations by 1903, when he opened a restaurant on Main Street. A year later, Warner moved to Newtown Lane, to a property associated with the Osborne family. By 1906, the bakery also offered ice cream at the Newtown Lane location.
The East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection will focus on East Hampton’s business district twice, first with a mini pop-up exhibition opening Wednesday and on view through July 19. And on Friday, July 18, the Tom Twomey Series will feature the Anchor Society’s Bess Rattray and Hugh King, the town and village historian, discussing some of the diverse stores that once throve on Main Street and Newtown Lane. More information and a chance to sign up are at Eventbrite.
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Andrea Meyer, a librarian and archivist, is head of collection for the Long Island Collection.
