Helms Bakery

Currently the buildings have been adapted for use as retail shops, restaurants, and furniture showrooms; the complex is part of what is now called the Helms Bakery District.

Each coach would travel through its assigned neighborhoods, with the driver periodically pulling (twice) on a large handle that sounded a whistle or stopping at a house where a Helms sign, a blue placard with an "H" on it, was displayed in their windows.

Until WWII, both Twin-Coach and early Divco vehicles were manufactured by the merged Divco-Twin Truck Company in a new factory opened in 1939 on Hoover Road in suburban Detroit.

In 1937, the firm introduced a new delivery vehicle based on a design similar to Chrysler's Airflow, which by WWII had a market for Divco.

The tucks made with the older Twin-style bodies were discontinued and the name was dropped from the company when the factory switched to military parts in WWII and was never resumed.

[citation needed] Paul Helms died on January 5, 1957, at age 67, but the business continued to operate, run by family members.

In the company's final year of operation, a marketing campaign netted Helms a contract to furnish "the first bread on the moon," via the Apollo 11 space mission.

"Olympic Bread" logo on building photographed by John Margolies in 1977
Helms Bakery in 1977
Helms delivery truck circa 1950 located at the LeMay Car museum in Tacoma, WA
Helms delivery truck, c. 1950, located at the LeMay Car museum in Tacoma, Washington