#Ralph Hulett

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Christmas card art by Ralph Hulett (1950s, 1960s)

[thatgirlupstairs]

Ralph Hulett cityscape Christmas card, early 1960s

[pagan-stitches]

““This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath…””

Margaret Atwood, Eating Fire: Selected Poetry 1965-199

Art by Ralph Hulett

[holespoles]

Ralph Hulett (1915-1974)

[now-winter-comes-slowly]

Ralph Hulett

[tomoleary]

Ralph Hulett (1915-1974) The Aristocats concept art (1970)

[adventurelandia]

Injun Joe's Cave by Ralph Hulett, 1962

[metrashbaby]

[cosmicretreat]

Ralph Hulett

[delicatuscii-wasbella102]

Ralph Hulett - Winter Scene

[atomic-chronoscaph]

art by Ralph Hulett

[vezzipuss]

David Bowie, “Isolar 11 Tour” Circa 78 ©️Ralph Hulett ♾🔛♾

[pagan-stitches]

I hope everybody who celebrates has a wonderful Christmas Day and a great kickoff to the 12 days of Christmas for those of us who observe them. Today isn’t huge on my devotional calendar (The solstice and Christmas Eve are bigger days for me and looking forward to wren hunting tomorrow!! ) but it’s a big day to a lot of my family, so there will be cooking, eating, and visiting. Not to mention all the cleaning beforehand! 🤪 Working on my tamale dinner now.

[itslegribou]

Cartes de Noël dessinées par Ralph Hulett, années 1960.

[now-winter-comes-slowly]

[ultraheydudemestuff]

J. Spang Baking Company

2707 Barber Ave.

Cleveland, OH

The J. Spang Baking Company building is located at 2707 Barber Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. The family-owned retail bakery that operated for 70 years was established by German immigrants Julius and Fredericka Spang, who learned the baking trade in Germany, where he was born in 1852. He and his family came to the U.S. in 1882, and after settling in Cleveland with Mr. Spang working as a master baker at the downtown Stillman Hotel and later at the Ohio Baking Company, Spang opened a small bake shop in their home on Barber Ave. in 1888. The couple began baking bread for Mrs. Spang to sell to local grocers and residents. The couple later secured a stall at Cleveland’s Central Market, which Mrs. Spang managed. The stand’s success allowed Mr. Spang to quit his job and dedicate himself full-time to the fledgling family business. Julius Spang's son, Emil, managed the Barber Ave. retail shop from 1900 to 1908 and then organized a second bakery under his own name. The Emil Spang Baking Co. was a wholesale bakery firm incorporated in 1913 and located at 1556 E. 24th St. He returned to his father's firm as a manager in 1922 but continued to operate his own bakery until 1950, when he sold it. In 1906, the couple built a stable in their yard and expanded into daily home delivery of baked goods. He founded the J. Spang Baking Co. as a full-service bread, cake, muffin, and pastry company in 1909 and continued to expand its operations through the years. The Spangs knocked down their house in 1911 and built the eastern portion of the current building complex.

This building at 2707 Barber Ave. was designed by architect Ralph M. Hulett and erected in 1911. Several additions were made between 1911 and 1937. Further success over the ensuing 25 years fueled the acquisition of all the adjoining homes on the block. Over that period, the building expanded through multiple additions to its current size. The business also built other production and distribution facilities in Cuyahoga and Lorain County. By 1956 the company employed 433 people and operated the main plant at 2911 Barber Ave., another plant in Lorain, and a third in Akron. After the founder's death in Dec. 1950, the Spang family maintained control of the company until, with the advent of sliced bread on grocery-store shelves, the bakery closed and it was sold to the competing Laub Baking Co. in 1958. The family retained the business’s real estate and managed the Barber Avenue building as commercial landlords. The structure was used for light industry before becoming vacant about 2010. BVQ Lofts bought it from a fifth-generation descendant of Julius and Fredericka Spang in 2017 and began reconstituting it as loft apartments. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 14, 2018.