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TBT – Chambersburg, PA; Our First Decade 1955-1965

August 6, 2015
1 min. read

For the last week of our All-American Road Trip, we are in our hometown, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. We’d like to throw it back to when it all began, our first decade 1955 – 1965.

Back in the 1950′s, in the kitchen of their home located in the heart of “Pennsylvania Dutch” country, Lois and Lloyd Martin perfected their potato roll. Using a recipe that had been handed down in their family for longer than anyone could remember, and guided by Lloyd’s twelve years of experience working in his father-in-law’s bakery, the Martins soon felt they had a product they would be proud to sell. Their first customers were friends and neighbors who bought their potato rolls in local farmers’ markets.

Once their kitchen could no longer meet the demand, they moved their operation to the one-car garage at the back of their house. They worked out of the garage-turned-bakery for many years while they built up their sales and popularity at farmers’ markets in Carlisle, York, and Harrisburg. Ten years later, they purchased a house on Lincoln Way (Route 30) in Chambersburg and converted it into a bakery and eventually it became the Martin’s Family Restaurant and Bakery.

You can see more of our history under the Heritage section on our website. The pictures below are of the Martin family when they first started their business; the garage that they turned into a bakery; and the restaurant-bakery on Lincoln Way.

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