Yost’s Dutch Maid Bakery is a third-generation family-owned and operated scratch bakery that has proudly served Johnstown and surrounding areas for 100 years. Founded in 1921 by Andrew Yost, Dutch Maid Bakery was originally named Sweet Wheat and located on Oak Street in Johnstown’s Hornerstown neighborhood. After immigrating from Germany and prior to establishing his own bakery, Andrew worked as a baker in Pittsburgh, a production manager at Hallers Bakery in Altoona and was the manager of the Penn Traffic bakery in Johnstown.
Andrew’s son Herbert (“Herbie”), the youngest of eight children, began running the bakery after returning from his deployment as a Seabee in the US Navy during World War II, and officially took over for his father in 1945. Herbie was a master baker and shrewd businessman, and under his guidance the bakery grew from a small building in the backyard of the Yost family home to a 15,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility. In 1959, with the Oak Street facility no longer large enough to handle increased production demand, Herbie built a retail bakery with storefront in Johnstown’s growing suburb of Richland, which remains its current location. With the new facility came a new name, as Sweet Wheat was rebranded as Dutch Maid Bakery . The original bakery on Oak Street continued operation for several more years, producing bread, buns and sweet rolls. In 1963 construction on a large expansion of the Richland location was completed, which allowed all operations to be under one roof, and the Oak Street bakery was officially shuttered.
It was during this time that the increasing prevalence of supermarkets began to significantly disrupt the retail environment. For it’s first 40 years of existence, the bakery thrived on door-to-door deliveries, as most families had items such as bread and milk delivered directly to their homes. In the 1950’s, Dutch Maid had around 30 independent door-to-door drivers servicing Johnstown and surrounding areas. In addition, the bakery supplied the numerous “mom-and-pop” corner stores that were prevalent in neighborhoods throughout the city. In the 1960s and 1970s, the rise of the supermarket ushered in the decline of door-to-door delivery as well as the corner store. While the bakery’s retail store continued to thrive and grow, the wholesale-side of the business had to pivot to adapt to the changing landscape. Dutch Maid began focusing on baking products for supermarkets (which at that time did not have bakeries integrated into their stores), with a strong emphasis on donuts, cakes and sweet rolls. A distribution deal with Schmidt Baking Co. in the 1970s and acquiring Giant Eagle accounts in the early 1980s were further catalysts for Dutch Maid’s expansion.
In 1980, Herbie and his son Tim acquired the naming rights and formula for the locally famous “Gob” from Harris-Boyer Bakery, which at the time was ending operations. The Gob, with its sailor boy logo and yellow icing, would become the bakery’s iconic product alongside other customer favorites including raisin cookies, glazed donuts, cakes (with buttercream icing), pies, cupcakes, creme puffs, maple rolls, sweet rolls, hard rolls, French Bead, Homestyle bread…and the list goes on-and-on (approximately 300 items at its peak).
In 1986, Tim acquired the bakery from his father Herbie and continues to run the business to this day. After continuing to grow the business throughout the 1990s, which included producing items for Holsum Butterkrust Bakery, Tim made the tough decision to close the retail store in 2004 in order to focus on the wholesale-side of the business, particularly Gobs and Raisin Cookies (and while he vowed to finally take weekends off, he still spent them baking and decorating cakes). The change was bittersweet since the bakery has always been blessed with a loyal customer base and dedicated employees. We are grateful and honored to be a part of the Johnstown community for 100 years and counting.
