Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery - Since 1861

Chase, my niece, and I started off our day at the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery. The bakery is the oldest commercial Bakery in the United States of America. They run tours every so many minutes. Its like every fifteen or twenty minutes. But,if you have more than ten people in your party they like you to call ahead so that they can be sure to accommodate you.

The first thing we did on our tour was learn how to twist pretzels. Watching Chase was funny. Let's just say he had a very unique looking pretzel. Then we all received a official pretzel twister certificate.


Then we went over to the old brick ovens where they use to bake the pretzels. That was neat seeing the old ovens. They have one of the old ovens on the end hooked up to gas. They still use that to make soft pretzels in. The guide told us about the ovens and how the pretzels were baked and cooled. He also told us about how the hard pretzel came to be. I need to go back again because he talked so fast I missed some of the stuff. Of course, maybe I just process too slow.

Then at the end of the tour we got a bag of Tom Sturgis (Julius's great great grandson) hard pretzels(mmm good). You could then go buy a soft pretzel or go into the gift shop where they had all kind of pretzel goodies for sale.


The address for Julius Pretzel Bakery is 219 East Main St. (Route 772) Lititz, PA 17543. The Phone number is (717) 626-4354. They are closed Sundays, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for children.

I thought it was a neat place to visit to learn about the history of pretzel making. We will go back again, and get a soft pretzel next time. This time we didn't because we were headed to a buffet.

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