Gary J Sibio
The Ferrara Bakery opened in Chicago, Illinois in 1908. Its founder was an Italian immigrant, Salvatore Ferrara, who left his home in Nola, Italy in 1900 to come to America. He was 16 years old. He had been taught how to bake and make candy and he used these skills to open up a shop on Taylor Street in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood.
Salvatore married Serafina Pagano who worked in the shop and became known as “The Angel of Halsted Street”. (Serafina is the feminine version of the Italian word for ‘Sera[him’, a type of angel.) Salvatore put Serafina in charge of the bakery and set about to develop the candy end of the business. He started the Ferrara Pan Candy Company. He created Lemonheads and Atomic Fireballs, candies which are still very popular today.
For a while Ferrara joined forces with ice cream maker Victor Lezza. Lezza specialized in spumoni ice cream. The company is now located in Bellwood, Illinois. A sign on the front of the building which reads Pagano Lezza & Company dates back to their mutual operations.
Today the company still produces candy and baked goods. Its production facilities are located at 2210 West Taylor Street in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.
Text © 2019 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.
#Chicago #Illinois #business #history #bakery #candy #food #Italian #immigrants #urbanarchaeology
Architectural Detail on the Original Ferrara Bakery Building (2014-07-31 13-29-28a)
Located at 2210 West Taylor Street in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. This building was built in 1913. ('Original' refers to the company. The first bakey was located near Taylor and Halsted.)
The photo was taken using a Nikon Coolpix P7700 camera. Editing was done using Luminar 3. I cropped the image to a 16:9 ratio and then used the RAW Develop filter to increase the contrast and clarity and lower the highlights. Next I added the Accent-AI and AI Sky Enhancer filters and increased the vibrance and structure (sharpness).
Photo © 2014 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.
Original Ferrara Bakery Building, Chicago (2014-07-31 13-29-07a)
Located at 2210 West Taylor Street in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. This building was built in 1913. ('Original' refers to the company. The first bakey was located near Taylor and Halsted.)
The photo was taken using a Nikon Coolpix P7700 camera. Editing was done using ACDSee Ultimate 2019. I adjusted the white balance and the lighting and increased the contrast and clarity. I adjusted the levels and applied the 'Clouds' special effect to deal with a washed out sky.
Photo © 2014 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.
Sign on the Original Ferrara Bakery Building, Chicago (2014-07-31 13-28-58a)
Located at 2210 West Taylor Street in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. This building was built in 1913. ('Original' refers to the company. The first bakey was located near Taylor and Halsted.)
The photo was taken using a Nikon Coolpix P7700 camera. Editing was done using ACDSee Ultimate 2019. I adjusted the white balance and the lighting and increased the contrast and clarity.
Photo © 2014 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.
Amazing edit Gary, beautiful job.
Thanks, Carol. It took me a couple of attempts to get it right.
It was well worth it as it is beautiful.
Oh, isn’t that beautiful. I may never get back to Chicago, but I love seeing the old places.
It really caught my eye.