Continental Baking Company Bakery
← Picture This STL
industrial·standing

Continental Baking Company Bakery

Also known as Hostess Bakery
Also known as Continental Bakery
ca. 1900
Updated September 2026
About

A two-story red-brick industrial building on a rough-cut limestone foundation, running most of a block along Hebert Street. The upper floor is lined with tall arched windows, the corner bays carrying wide round-arched openings with radiating brick voussoirs; the windows are boarded. A projecting metal canopy band runs above the ground floor, and a carved stone entrance surround reads "HOSTESS CAKE" in Art Deco lettering. Wooden rooftop cooling towers and green sheet-metal exhaust stacks rise above the parapet. Along the rear alley a section of roof and wall has collapsed into a mound of charred debris.

History

Built around the turn of the 20th century, the building housed a bakery of the Continental Baking Company, maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess snack cakes; the carved "HOSTESS CAKE" entrance survives from its operation under the Hostess brand. The plant ran a day-old outlet store selling discounted bread and cakes. The building has since stood vacant, and a section of its roof and rear wall has collapsed.

Address
2625 Hebert St, St. Louis, MO 63107
Location
Photographs · 19
Further Reading
Continental Baking Company
Wikipedia · website
R.I.P. St. Louis Hostess Plant; Most Delicious Field Trip EVER!
Riverfront Times · article