One of the things that makes Carriage House Bakery & More so unique is the fact that it located in a beautiful "historic" home in Avon.  Rather than tear down and build new, Steve Schafer of Schafer Development and the owners of Carriage House worked together to rehab the historic home that sits along Detroit Rd.      Although we had heard many things about the house, it was hard to filter "hear-say" from reality .  When we finally moved into the home in November of 2009, we sent out an email to our extensive customer list to ask if there was anyone who knew more about the house.  We were very excited when Marcia Demby, the daughter of the original owners of the house,  Isadore "Izzy" and Lillian Gelman (pictured left),  wrote back to us.  Eventually, Marcia, her husband Norman and their daughter and granddaughter came to visit and were kind enough to fill in many of the blanks and share their memories. NOTE:  When you look behind the Gelman's you can see what is now Catherine's Chocolates.

The house was built in the 1940's by the Gelman's who moved to Avon and were the owners of the first grocery store in the city. Located on the corner of Rt. 611 and Detroit on what is now the parking lot of Nemo's Restaurant, Izzy Gelman ownedand operated Avon Food Fair.  One of our customers remembers watching in awe when the Gelman's installed the first conveyor belt in the grocery.  My, haven't we come a long way. We know that after the Gelman's sold the house it became a boarding house for a few years and then went through many changes and owners as the years went on.  Liz Adamson, one of the owners of Carriage House, went to the Administration building in Elyria to try to do further research but we found when Mrs. Demby came to visit that the address on the house was changed in the mid '50's so all of the document search we did was on the house next door.  Oops!    We are always looking for more information about the house.  Please contact us to let us know what you know - especially about the time period between 1970 and 2000.