Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Waldorf System Tiles on City Hall Commons


[From the Cambridge Tribune, 8 June 1918, scanned and posted by the Cambridge [MA] Public Library]

THE WALDORF LUNCH SYSTEM


The main plant of the Waldorf Lunch Co. is at [?]09 Purchase Street, Boston, where they occupy a whole building with 86,000 feet of floor space. The firm employs about [?] hands and the plant Is kept busy [?[ hours a day turning out the excellent quality of pies, cakes and doughnuts which has made the Waldorf Lunch Co. business what it is today. 

In the basement is the refrigerating plant which supplies all of the refrigerators throughout the building, of which there are several on each floor, and here is also the crockery and glassware department, where, one would think that they were in a large wholesale establishment, so much of [?[ class of goods are being used by this firm. 

In the first floor is the Receiving department where goods are received and also where the goods are delivered to the company's teams for distribution among the different stores of the system, which are all supplied from this main plant. When the boxes are returned empty they are washed carefully before being used again. On this floor is also the wash room for men containing shower baths, etc. 

On the second floor is the main supply room from which all the departments are supplied. Here also are the apples peeled and cured and carefully examined by women before being cut up for pies. etc. There Is also a special table used for sorting out inferior beans which are carefully gone over before being put in soak preparatory to being baked in the immense ovens on the third floor.  

On the third floor is the pie department. Here are machines for making pie crusts such that every one weighs alike and are carefully edged in diverse ways for each kind of pie made. Everything here is placed on racks and wheeled from one point to another, so that there is no actual handling of the pies from the time they are filled and baked, up to the delivery and placing on the company's counters for sale. 

On the fourth flour is the mixing department where are made the cakes, coffee [?], etc. Here are also the [?] jacket kettles where the different fillings and sauces are made. There are also huge steaming compartments where the various kinds of doughnuts, etc. are made uniform in size and weight. Here also are the large steam ovens, for baking the coffee rolls, etc. 

The fifth floor is where the doughnuts are cut and baked and fried, six large kettles being used for this purpose and also the kitchen department where the soups, stews, meats, etc. are prepared, and here also are the help's dining halls. 

On the sixth floor are the store rooms used for. [?] flour and sugar. Here are large machines for blending the various flours to conform with the food regulations. The flour is dumped into [?] large bins and through a system of special changes, the required amounts for each different kind of flour is mixed together. 

There is a vacuum cleaning system connected with each floor and the dust Is carefully sucked into pipes and the doors scrubbed so that dirt or dust is [?] allowed to settle in any of the departments. 

It is one of the largest plants of its kind in the country and no expense is spared to keep everything in first class condition, so as to assure the patrons of the Waldorf Lunch Co. that whatever is purchased in any of the company stores, is absolutely pure and clean in every way. The bottled milk which is sold in the different restaurants of the system comes from Kelsey[?] Farm in Lexington, Mass., where the cow barns are as well kept as any of the lunch rooms of the company....

2 comments:

  1. It would have been quite an operation back in the day.

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  2. Thanks for this! I've created a Waldorf System article on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_System), which you may find interesting. Would you be interested in releasing your photo of the tile to Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license so that I can add it to the article?

    Thanks!
    -s

    ReplyDelete