– W I L L I A M  C .  S H E L L Y – 

“Housewives should see that there is always an extra loaf of Shelly’s 4X in the bin,
for so many delicious desserts, toasts, rusks, and dainty puddings can be made –
that there never need be any waste. So tell your grocer to send you an extra loaf.
Or phone Shelly Bros. Limited – Fairmont 44.”

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– For Your Amusement –
{Fresh Baked Bread and Baked Goods.}

It’s not hard to imagine what pulled grandfather into the baking business. As a youngster, the warm aroma of freshly baked breads floated around him and his siblings courtesy of their father being a baker. Which coaxed him to leaving school early to make and sell donuts with his sister. Years later this early journey had grandfather and his brother James open Shelly Bakery in Ontario. In 1910, they moved to Vancouver to expand the bakery business under the name, Shelly 4X Bread. Say, how about that name, really like the Shelly part, but “4X”? Then again, it made perfect sense. However, there are two explanations. Can’t say for certain which is correct but lean towards what I think dad told me so many years back. In Roman numerals X = 10, so 4X = 40, and forty dollars was the only start-up capital grandfather, along with his brother had to get Shelly Bakery off the ground. The other, the process in which the bread dough was prepared. It was allowed to rise, fall, then repeat three more times before being baked. Apparently to improve the quality and texture of the bread and overall eating experience.

The famous 4X Bread is on which their fortune was made. Together, they became renowned for their gleaming vans drawn by horses, delivering Shelly 4X bread door-to-door in neighbourhoods across B.C.’s lower mainland. In the mid-1920’s, grandfather, building on the success of their original bakery began buying smaller bakeries and assembled a conglomerate called Canadian Bakeries Ltd. A huge operation serving western Canada with hundreds of employees it had branches in North Vancouver and New Westminster. Shelly 4X Bread was sold until the 1940’s. Wrapping up our loaf of Shelly 4X Bread, let’s take what’s left and hike up Grouse Mountain for a spectacular afternoon view of Vancouver. That’s what thousands did in the early 1900’s. As Vancouver and the Burrard Inlet’s population grew, hiking up the mountain became a popular annual pastime. One group of men – rifle or two in tow – near the peak flushed some blue grouse and one was shot. “Gentlemen, we’ll call this hill Grouse Mountain.”

By 1910, all those folks hiking Grouse Mountain inspired a few visionary businessmen. Grandfather was one, in 1925 he and his partners bought 1,800 acres of the mountain from the B.C. government and private owners. Grouse Mountain Highway and Scenic Resort Ltd. was formed to put in a road and build the chalet. Around 1926 construction of Grouse Mountain Chalet began, and foundations for a larger hotel were laid as well, to eventually convert the chalet to a ski house. From the Vancouver History Archives, It was a magnificent wooden structure, built – without a nail – by Scandinavian craftsmen. There was a huge stone fireplace, bearskin rugs, fine furniture and dining ware. The popularity of the place “was particularly evident on Saturday nights,” a fan wrote, “when a trail of limousines streamed up the highway to deliver guests for the evening.” Though the past is a memory, grandfather left a mountainous legacy. In my autobiography I present more fascinating Shelly Canadian history.

The historical 4X Bread images sprinkled throughout this website are reproduced from the video, “Selling Bread To Housewives During The 1920’s”. It was produced in 2016 by artist, author and Vancouver historian Michael Kluckner and runs about 50 minutes.