A stubborn fire last month in a 100-year-old West Baltimore structure halted Amtrak and MARC trains and caused families along Bentalou Street to be evacuated. News reports described the source of the prolonged burning as mattresses that had been stored in a brick warehouse.

To describe 2140 Edmondson Ave. as a mattress warehouse is accurate, but the building had an earlier life and served a different purpose. It opened in 1925 as the Ward Baking Company and was once one of the ruling commercial bakeries in the city.

The company was not alone as a bread baker — Greater Rosemont and Sandtown-Winchester were once the commercial bread basket of Baltimore.

Ward Baking was a firm founded in New York City by two Irish-born brothers, James and Hugh Ward. They may have had a single oven wh

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