Ever wondered what happened to that restaurant you once loved and have memories of dining at with your family and friends? We did! There is an amazing website called Lost Tables, dedicated to celebrating the restaurants of our past. We are partnering with the site’s creator Harley Hammerman and celebrating these wonderful stories. Hammerman and his wife Marlene are members of Shaare Emeth, and she is past president of the National Council of Jewish Women of St. Louis.   Visit Lost Tables on Facebook 

Remembering Lake Forest 

Henry Schaumberg Jr. was born in 1872 in Kansas. Schaumberg is listed in 1895-1898 city directories as a draftsman, and after 1898 as an architect. Although his name is associated with many houses in south St. Louis and the Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood, much later in his career Schaumberg designed a “bakery, shop and garage” in the city of Clayton.

Schaumberg’s Art Deco design was executed by builder H. Beetz and Son in 1940 at the corner of Clayton Road and Bemiston. The August 26, 1940 building permit lists the cost of the construction at $14,500. A $700 addition to the shop was built in 1945 and a $6,000 addition to the bakery and garage was constructed in 1946.

Art Deco provided a convenient means of giving identity to small commercial buildings that might otherwise have lacked character. Schaumberg’s design achieved its modern look with cubist massing, glass block and yellow glazed brickwork with orange stripes.

Schaumberg designed his building at 7737 Clayton Road for baker Carl Bollenmueller. It was the last St. Louis bakery built with a second-story living quarters. Bollenmueller named his enterprise Lake Forest Pastry Shop.

More from Lost Tables: Remembering Yacovelli’s

Carl Bollenmueller was born Karl Bollenmueller in Oberbaldinger, Germany in 1886. He immigrated to the United States in 1923. Before moving into his bakery and home on Clayton Road in 1940, Bollenmueller was listed in the 1933 St. Louis City Directory as having a retail bakery at 3305 Arsenal.

By 1950, Lake Forest Pastry Shop had changed hands. The new owner was Walter Schuchardt.

Walter Robert Schuchardt was born in St. Louis in 1905. As early as 1929, he owned the Schuchardt Pastry Shop at 3538 Gravois Avenue, living above the bakery with his family. When he moved his bakery and home to 7737 Clayton Road, he kept the existing Lake Forest moniker.

Walter Schuchardt was adept at promoting his bakery. In February of 1952, when Eddie Cantor was in St. Louis for a fundraiser, Schuchardt designed a cake for the famed comedian’s sixtieth birthday. In 1956, Schuchardt was elected president of the Associated Retail Bakers of America.

Schuchardt was an innovative baker. A story in the September issue of Bakers Weekly gave Schuchardt credit for developing the German Chocolate Cake.