One might choose the smell of Lake Superior early in the morning. People who lived in North Marquette between 1905 and 1970 might claim it would be the odor that came from the Cliffs Dow Plant.

But for several generations of residents across a wide swath of the city that smell would probably have to be the smell of freshly baking bread that emanated from the Our Own Bakery

For many years just colloquially called “The Bunny Bread Bakery,” this facility on Washington Street was owned by several different companies and produced several different lines of bread during the seven decades it operated. But the one thing it produced no matter what the year or no matter who the owner was the smell of fresh baked bread that emanated from the place. Depending upon which way the wind blew, you could catch a whiff over a large swath of the city, a scent that gave Marquette a smell unlike any other.

In 1925 a group of Upper Michigan grocers opened the Merchants Wholesale Bakery in the Soo, in order to provide fresh breads and rolls to their stores. However, the need soon arose for a bakery that was more centrally located in the Peninsula, so in December 1936 the second Merchants Wholesale Bakery was opened at the corner of Washington and Lincoln in Marquette.

The image is from a Marquette Mirror story published on Sept.11, 1968. Inset, the exterior of the bakery is pictured. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

About that same time, three brothers from Illinois — Amos, Arnold, and Jack Lewis — opened their own bakery in their home town and decided to begin manufacturing their own brand of bread.

That brand — Bunny Bread — soon became synonymous with the Merchants Wholesale Bakery in Marquette.

The Marquette bakery–officially renamed the Our Own Bakery in the mid-1950s–was one of the main production facilities for Bunny Bread for over 30 years. In fact, most area residents just called it “The Bunny Bread Bakery,” a name that was definitely helped by the sight of a giant neon bunny on the east side of the plant, whose ears could be seen moving back & forth whenever it was lit up.

At its peak, the Our Own Bakery employed 150 bakers, drivers, and maintenance workers. And during those peak years it baked and shipped Bunny Bread brand bread and buns throughout the Upper Midwest. The plant even won the coveted American Bakeries Co-op “Golden Loaf Award” four years in a row in the 50s for the quality of its Bunny Bread products.

The breads and rolls that were produced at Marquette’s Our Own Bakery were also backed up by one of the catchiest ad jingles of the 1950s and 1960s. In fact, if you were to ask people around during that era to finish the phrase that began with “That’s what I said …” it’s most likely many of them would finish it by saying “Bunny Bread.”

The bakery produced Bunny Bread until the late 1970s when it was sold to Heilman Bakeries, and the Bunny Bread brand began to fade away. Other product lines began to be manufactured in Marquette, although the iconic neon Bunny Bread sign on the side of the building remained. That was eventually taken down and moved to a place of honor in the entryway of the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum.

The bakery was eventually sold again, this time to national chain Sara Lee, which produced and shipped its eponymous products around the upper Midwest.

By the mid-2000s employment at the plant dropped down to 80 workers, and it produced its final loaves on June 27, 2009, the final time anyone could catch a whiff of the “Official Smell of the City of Marquette.”