Molly's Bakery

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It was a sad day when the Transcript announced that Molly’s Bakery, an Eagle Street landmark since 1937, was closing its doors on March 29, 2008. The business began in 1931 by John, Sam and Joseph Mazza where the store was located at 165 State Street.

The origin of the name “Molly” is a mystery, although there are a couple of possibilities. A simple explanation was the Mazza brothers wanted a common name that people would remember easily. A more detailed interpretation involves the brothers and a wartime romance. It seems that one of the brothers met an Italian lady who had lost her husband in the war. The brother took her in for a time and cared for her. The woman’s middle name was “Millet” and from that the name “Molly” was created.

The Mazza bothers were successful enough to move to a larger store on Eagle Street in 1937. There they ran their bakery for 29 more years. At one time they had branches in Adams, Williamstown and the old Adams Supermarket. In 1966 they retired and sold Molly’s to Peter Gresser and Kurt Halder.

Through the years, the business changed hands two more times ending with Sheryl Gibson, Greg Bascom, and Kevin Poette.

When Molly’s was in its heyday, the smells of fresh loaves of rye, raisin, cinnamon or English muffin breads swirled around the Eagle Street bakery inviting customers to come inside. Once there, people had choices of doughnuts, whoopie pies, smiley cookies and all-occasion cakes. Everything was baked fresh daily from scratch.

Adapted from a story for the North Adams Historical Society.