Origins & History
as pieced together through second and third generation family memories
ROSEN'S FAMOUS BAKERY
1944
1986
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
4755 N. 11th Street
From the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s, Rosen’s Famous Bakery at 4755 N. 11th Street in the Logan section of North Philadelphia flourished as a destination for traditional European Jewish bread and cake delicacies. Owners Samuel and Ida Rosen and, later their son, Martin (Marty) transmitted a love of their heritage to a broad community through fondly remembered savory breads, sweet pastries, renowned wedding cakes and ceremonial hallahs.
Through family snapshots, texts, documented ephemera, actual memories and a 1977 photo essay by the distinguished photographer, Laurence Salzmann this webpage, hopefully, will help to keep the memory of the “Famous” alive.
SAM & IDA ROSEN
Sholom Roisin (Samuel Rosen) was born in 1912 in Volhynia Gubernya in the Russian Ukraine. (Volhynia is the name of a province. Gubernya means province or state.) His mother, Riva, owned the village oven, meaning villagers would bring foods that needed to be baked to her. Not every house had an oven. This was especially true for the end of week, Shabbat hallah breads.
Later, after immigrating to the United States, Sam followed his father, Isaac into the baking business. However, there is no known history of his father having worked as a baker in the Ukraine, and we do not know how he trained to become a baker. In this country Sam’s mother, Riva was a housemaker, raising five children.
Born in 1913, Ida Braverman, came to this country as a child from Podolsky Gubernya, also in the Ukraine. She and Sam met in Philadelphia as young teenagers and married at 18 and 19. They remained partners in life and love for 70 years during which they built a successful family and a successful business. They maintain this love during a 24/7 partnership and were almost never apart.
TIMELINE
compiled by Rita Rosen Poley
1920s
Early Days
The first step to becoming a baker in the Jewish trade bakeries was union membership. It was difficult to become a union member baker. It was a difficult apprenticeship and it was a big deal when my father “made it.” He gained union status at an unusually young age. One of the tests was to demonstrate capability “at the bench,” to show what you could do. Sam’s handiwork was so beautiful and so accomplished that the union members could not deny him membership although they tried to. His hand-twisted twist rolls and plaited hallahs were works of art. For many years he worked in various bakeries.
1943-44
Rosen's Famous Bakery Opens
Finally, in about 1943 or ’44, with his wife, Ida, they purchased an existing bakery and moved “above the store” with their three children, Bernice (Bossie), Marty and Rita.
1944-60s
Business Expansion
The village oven became a Jewish bakery in the Logan section of Philadelphia, Rosen’s Famous Bakery. My father was elected a longtime President of the Philadelphia branch of the Hebrew Master’s Bakers Association, a national professional association for Jewish bakers. Philadelphia had a thriving cohort of Jewish bakers through the 1960s until many started to close. In Logan alone, within two blocks there were three Jewish bakeries. The business thrived and expanded and developed into both a wholesale and retail operation. The store was modernized and the bake shop was doubled in size and modern baking equipment was added. However, key to the enduring success of the bakery was its traditional brick hearth bagel oven.
1960-80s
Prominent Fixture in Community
In the mid-1960s, my brother, Marty Rosen, came into the business alongside my father. Marty became a leading bread baker in his own right. Through Marty’s initiative a second location was added in the Huntingdon Valley Shopping Center on Huntingdon Pike. This store had its own cake shop but bread was baked at the Logan shop and brought to Huntingdon Valley.
The retail business was split between the bread and cake offerings. Each had its own specialties. People came from far and wide for my father’s Russian pump, onion boards, bagels, rye bread, kaiser rolls and more. At the same time, our cake shop, headed in the early years by my mother’s brother, Heshy Braverman, with the assistance of another brother, Mickey, was well known for spectacular wedding and bar mitzvah cakes and a wide variety of sweet baked goods, with the addition of seasonal and holiday specialties. Later, Heshy left my parents and opened his own very successful bakery, Hesh’s Éclair” in the Northeast section of the city.
Among the Rosen's many wholesale customers were Jewish summer camps; the Philadelphia Jewish Federation, and its Old Aged Homes; many country clubs; synagogues; caterers; delicatessens and more.
1980s-Present
After Rosen's Famous Bakery
Due to many factors the two bakeries closed in the mid-1980s. However, both Sam and Marty continued to bake. Before the bakeries closed Marty had begun to teach baking at Dobbins Vocational Technical High School and inspired and mentored many of his students to enter the bread, restaurant, and catering businesses. Sam became a guest teacher at Dobbins and was, himself a mentor to many of the students. In those final years many of those students got their start working in the bakery. In addition, Sam went back to his roots and started working part-time in many of the Jewish bakeries that survived into the late 1980s. His last students were his grandchildren, many of whom carry on his traditions and bake amazing hallahs for family celebrations.