Drake's is a brand of American baked goods. The company was founded by Newman E. Drake in 1896 in Harlem, New York, as The N.E. Drake Baking Company, but it is now owned by McKee Foods. The company makes snack cake products, such as Devil Dogs, Funny Bones, Coffee Cakes, Ring Dings, and Yodels. Drake's has traditionally been marketed primarily in the Northeastern U.S., but it expanded to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. regions in 2016. The products are made under the Orthodox Union kosher certification guidelines.
History
Early years Drake's brand began as The N.E. Drake Baking Company, incorporated on November 14, 1896, in New York CityCertificate of Incorporation, The N.E. Drake Baking Company, Record Room, County Clerk, New York County. Filed and recorded, November 23, 1896. and founded by Newman E. Drake. The first bakery was in Harlem at 36–38 West 135th Street.Trow's Business Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, 1898.New York City Directory, 1898.
Drake's youngest brother Judson was working with him at the founding,Judson C. Drake, The N.B.C. (Internal National Biscuit Company Publication), September 1921, page 20. Sourced from Mondelez Archivist. and his brother Charles was with him in the later business in Brooklyn. Judson left the business in 1898 for the National Biscuit Company where he had a long and well-regarded career in bakery management. Charles was a vice president for the Brooklyn business, but he sold his interest and retired in 1907.Brooklyn City Directory, 1904.C.E. Drake Obituary, The Kingston Daily Freeman, March 1, 1950. At some point, all four of Newman's sons worked in the business.News of the Markets Personal and Social, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 10, 1910.
Newman Drake came into this entrepreneurial venture with experience in large scale commercial baking. In 1888, he joined Vanderveer and Holmes Biscuit Company,Know Your County, Newman Drake Broadcast – Transcript, July 1, 1973. WNNJ and WIXL-FM, by Howard Case of the Sussex County (NJ) Historical Society, page 29. and he had become a salesman traveling internationallyNew York Passenger Arrival Lists, Ellis Island, January 5, 1894. for this cracker business by 1894.New York City Directory, 1894. He was traveling in England on business in 1893–94 when he observed commercially baked fine cakes sold in grocery stores, and he was inspired to bring the idea to America.Encyclopedia of American Biography, New Series, Winfield Scott Downs, The American Historical Society, Inc. New York, 1934, pages 347–348.
By March 1898, retailer ads featured Drake's pound cakes by brand name in various flavors. The ads stated that the products were baked fresh daily and sold for 17 cents per pound.Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 18, 1898, page 9. In 1900, retailer ads featured Drake's layer cakes with chocolate or vanilla icing at 18 cents. One Drake's ad touted that the price was half of what it would cost to make at home.Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 8, 1900. By 1901, retailer ads referred to Drake's "celebrated" pound cakes and included Drake's macaroons.Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 2, 1901.
National Biscuit Company In the 1890s, the cracker industry consolidated in a multitiered fashion. In 1898, the three major players consolidated into one large enterprise, the National Biscuit Company, later known as Nabisco.Cracker Industry, The Americana: Universal Reference Library, 1903 As early as 1899, but definitively by November 1900, the National Biscuit Company had purchased the Drake bakery and referred to the bakery as the N.E. Drake Baking Co. Branch.Fifteenth Annual Report of the Factory Inspector of the State of New York, November 20, 1900, page 854. Retailer ads show that the N.E. Drake's Famous Loaf Cakes continued to sell under that brand name at least to December 30, 1902.Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 30, 1902. The Drake Baking Company was dissolved in 1903,Obsolete American Securities and Corporation, Second Volume, 1911. however National Biscuit Company continued to produce cakes and macaroons at the same Harlem bakery at least into 1908, but the products were under brand names other than Drake, for example Regina, Golden Glory, and Imperial.Price List, Harlem Bakery, 36 – 38 West 135th Street, National Biscuit Company, March 18, 1908. Sourced from Mondelez Archivist. It is not known how Newman Drake was able to hold onto the Drake brand for later Drake baking enterprises, but National Biscuit Company moved onto other brand names.
Drake Brothers Company On December 4, 1902, Drake reestablished his business as Drake Brothers Company with his brother Charles and his brother-in-law Frank S. VreelandCertificate of Incorporation of Drake Brothers Co., Originally misfiled in the County of New York, but refiled in the County of Kings May 3, 1911, pages 178–180. (Kings County Clerk – Record Room. Search by date May 3, 1911). and by at least May 10, 1903, Drake was operating a bakery at 1006 Wallabout Market in Brooklyn, New York.Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 10, 1903. Newman was president, his brother Charles was vice president, and sons John Harold and Walter were bakers.Upington's General Directory of Brooklyn, 1903. Note that John Harold's name is listed as John Howard, but the home address is the same as Newman and Walter. By 1904, Newman's third son, Arthur, was working in the business as a salesman.
An article covering a Brooklyn food show in April 1904 indicated that Drake continued to produce pound cakes, macaroons, and other cakes at the Brooklyn bakery. The firm was noted as having been the first to have produced cakes in large quantities for grocery stores, which must reference the origins of the Harlem bakery. The new bakery was servicing over 1,000 stores in Brooklyn and extended "over a large portion of surrounding country."Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 12, 1904.
In 1904, Drake Brothers began sales recognition dinners that became grand affairs with speakers, guests, and monetary awards recognizing sales performance.Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 22, 1905 (Note: Second annual dinner)Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 7, 1906 (Note: Third annual dinner) A photograph of the fourteenth annual dinner in 1917, captures the grandeur of the event held at Silsbe and Son Oyster Bar and Chop House in Manhattan (established 1863),Silsbe & Son menu, January 10, 1900. In the collection of the New York Public Library. with attendees in suits, custom menus on the tables, tuxedoed wait staff, and lavish décor.Photograph by J.G. Waters, Fourteenth Annual Dinner, Salesmen and Department Heads, Drake Brothers, January 13, 1917, in the collection of the Brooklyn Historical Society.
In 1905, Drake opened a bakery in Boston's Roxbury neighborhoodBoro Baking Company Foresees Sales Gains, Brooklyn Eagle, March 31, 1941. at 83-85 Savin StreetReport of Proceedings City Council of Boston, October 14, 1907. with J. Harold Drake, Newman's son, as manager.
The Wallabout Market bakery expanded in 1909 with the addition into 1704–1705 Wallabout Market and the addition of a 16-foot oven.Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 13, 1909. Also in 1909, Drake's commissioned "Drake's Cake Walk", sheet music for a "rag" or "ragtime" music for piano.Drake's Cake Walk, Sheet Music, Composed by Edwin F. Kendall, in the collection of the New York Public Library, 1909.
In 1910, Newman Vanderveer Drake, Newman E. Drake's youngest son, joined the firm in Wallabout Market.Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 10, 1910.
In May 1913, Drake Brothers announced that they would build a new five story bakery built of brick and concrete on Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn on a lot 80 by 125 feet.New York Post, May 23, 1913. The ovens were on the top floor to allow the heat to escape, mixing was on the fourth floor, packing was on the third floor, offices on the second floor,Wonders of Brooklyn, XXXIII, Drake Brothers, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 17, 1920. and shipping and receiving on the ground level as seen in photographs of the facility.Photograph of Drake's Clinton Avenue Bakery, Brooklyn Historical Society. The facility had a laundry to clean the white uniforms. There was a rooftop garden that served as a break area.
Early branding and advertising Drake Brothers was recognized in a leading advertising magazine of the day for branding and advertising efforts. With much of the product sold by the pound, the products were vulnerable to substitution by retailers. Drake implemented pan liners that were perforated with the Drake's brand name so that the product could be identified by the end consumer. Drake's advertised this feature. Drake also made wide use of the trademark on trucks, advertising, and "everything that leaves our bakery".Printers' Ink, May 4, 1913, pages 65–66.
A White (brand) three-ton truck in the small fleet at the Drake's Boston bakery was featured in a trucking publication in 1914 for having operated for 14 months without the loss of a day.The Power Wagon, May 1914.
In 1920 and again in 1927, Drake's added garages to store their fleet of vehicles just down the street from the bakery at 35-37 Clinton Avenue and 41-43 Clinton Avenue.Wallabout Cultural Survey, March 2005.
In the early 1900s, Newman Drake was looking for something new and different to grace the door of his delivery trucks. Joseph Gross, a German immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1898 and worked as striper painting lines and designs on horse wagons and automobiles, drew the original Drake's logo which consisted of a duck with a chef's hat holding a tray of cakes. Drake was so pleased with the design that Gross received a bonus in the amount of $500 for his work.
Drake Bakeries, Inc. On July 29, 1924, a new corporation was formed as Drake Bakeries, Incorporated.Certificate of Incorporation of Drake Bakeries, Incorporated, filed in the County of Kings July 31, 1924, pages 69–79. (Kings County Clerk – Record Room. Search by date July 31, 1924). Ralph Ward became president of the company. Ralph Ward was the grandson of the founder of Ward Baking Company, a major bakery enterprise founded in 1849 that went on to be Continental Baking and introduce the Hostess brand, develop competitive products like Twinkies,Lehmann Brothers Collection – Contemporary Business Archives, Harvard Business School. and eventually after transitioning to Interstate Bakeries Corporation, own the Drake's brand in 1998, 74 years later,Interstate Bakeries Corporation. Annual Report, 1999. after having made an unsuccessful attempt to gain the Drake's brand in 1986.Borden Selling Drake Bakery to Purina; Considering Asset Writedowns. Associated Press, July 1, 1986.
The preferred shares of Drake Bakeries, Incorporated were owned by Bessemer Investment Company,New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division – First Department, Cornelius P Gearon, Walter Anderson, and Andrew H. Huber, (Plaintiffs – Appellants) against David T. Layman, Jr., Robert H. Graham, Ralph D. Ward, Alex Neubert, Benjamin Titman, Central Distributors, Inc., and Isidore Strongin (Defendants – Appellees). Case on Appeal, Volume 1, pages 1 – 544, Hudson Dispatch Printers, Union City, NJ, County of New York at the County Court House, December 20, 1934. the investment arm of the Bessemer Trust which was founded in 1907 by Henry Phipps from proceeds from the sale of Carnegie Steel, which Phipps founded with Andrew Carnegie.Bessemer Trust – Our Heritage, sourced from bessemertrust.com website on August 4, 2014. Newman E. Drake and other Drake family members, Ralph Ward and other Ward family investments, B. B. Vanderveer, and others were among the closely held group of common stockholders of Drake Bakeries.