The first Roselyn Bakery opened for business in 1943. John S. Clark Jr. and his wife Mildred started their iconic business in an empty bakery at 2205 N. Meridian Street. The Clarks intended to call their bakery Rosemary’s, but a bakery by that name in Marion, Indiana, eyed expanding to Indianapolis, which forced the Clarks to shorten the name of their shop to Roselyn’s to salvage a sign that was almost complete.
Harry Klein joined the husband-and-wife team as a master-baker of sorts. Within five years, the group opened two more bakeries. When Clark was deployed in World War II, Mildred ran the daily operations during his nine-month absence. Clark returned to Indianapolis to find the country contending with supply rationing. Fortunately, the Clarks found and purchased a donut shop that was on the market. It had a surplus of flour and sugar that allowed them to remain in business.
By 1950, a local chain of grocery stores persuaded the Clarks to sell their baked items in their stores. A centralized baking facility was required to fulfill the volume of items the grocery stores demanded. The Clarks built one at 30th Street and Keystone Avenue.
Disillusioned with supplying the grocery stores and about to lose the lease on their first location, the Clarks purchased an empty gas station across the street from their original bakery. Here in the late 50s, the Clarks opened their first freestanding bakery. It was at this location that the ubiquitous Rosie Roselyn appeared. Atop the 40-foot-tall Roselyn Bakery sign stood Rosie Roselyn, the cartoonish figure who loomed over the bakery became well-known to Indianapolis residents.
While Clark opened his freestanding location, his son, John R. Clark, joined the family business. In 1976, John S. Clark Jr. retired from the business he started 33 years prior. Subsequently, John R. Clark grew the enterprise to 40 locations.
A 1989 home invasion left the younger Clark dead and the business desperate for leadership. Twenty-two-year-old Jeff Clark, John R. Clark’s son, assumed the helm with younger brothers Jack and James soon following. None had been involved in the family business yet were thrust into day-to-day operations.
Ten years later, the Marion County Health Department received complaints of rodents roaming the production bakery at 30th Street and Keystone Avenue. Health inspectors toured the facility, cited 41 violations, and ordered the bakery shut down.
Within four days, following a thorough cleansing, the production bakery and all 34 bakeries reopened. Though the entire operation passed a second inspection, the published a report of the incident which stalled sales at the bakeries. The grandsons of John S. Clark Jr. shuttered Roselyn’s Bakery for good on August 6, 1999.
In May 2000, the Clarks resumed selling Roselyn Bakery items through their venture, Roselyn Recipes. Heinemann’s Bakeries of Chicago baked and sold the products to Kroger and .
Another attempt to profit off the bakeries came in the form of the cookbook. Part of the proceeds went to local public schools. In 2005, the Clark family sold the Roselyn brand to the Dias family and Mennel family Investors LLC.
While the Roselyn Bakery name had long ago been trademarked, the Roselyn Recipe name had not. The Dias family and Mennel family Investors LLC market protected the products produced through the Roselyn Recipe brand and established a nationwide trademark of the treats John C. Clark Jr. introduced to Indianapolis in 1943. By 2020, the Roselyn Recipe products sold in about 25 states.
Only nine of 34 local Roselyn Bakery locations have been repurposed as different business ventures, some using the iconic flying V-shaped sign to advertise non-related businesses. To Indianapolis residents, the signs evoke memories of the former bakery empire.
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