Christian Winkler took over the ovens on South Main Street in 1807, in a bakery working since 1799. This building began its life in 1799, established by the Moravian Church, and today it is the oldest continually operating bakery in the state. The name C. Winkler honors Christian Winkler, a Swiss born baker who began working here in 1807 after replacing the original baker, Thomas Butner Jr. The structure was built by Salem's master builder and mason Johann Gottlob Krause shortly before his death.
Look down and you will see the first story of uncut stone; look up and you will notice the upper levels of hand-made brick. Winkler lived here with his third wife, Elizabeth, and their six children, and their descendants stayed on. His grandson Charles and Charles's wife Alice ran the bakery in the late nineteenth century and added the front porch and second floor balcony you can still see.
In 1913 Bessie and Robert Spaugh, Alice's daughter and son in law, took over until the store left the family in 1926. In the 1930s and 1940s the place served as a tea room and a coffee house, with apartments above, and after World War II the first floor became an antiques shop and later a knitting store. Picture the stone base, the handmade bricks, and the porch and balcony that Charles and Alice added.