Collin Street Bakery was opened two blocks north of this site in 1896 by August Weidmann, an immigrant baker from Wiesbaden, Germany, and W. T. McElwee, a local cotton buyer. Their partnership combined Weidmann’s pursuit of a better cake with McElwee’s flair for business, creating an unusual and successful enterprise. One of Weidmann’s few assets was an unknown cake recipe that became the famous original “deluxe fruitcake,” eventually shipped to every state in the United States and to many foreign countries. In 1906, McElwee built a rooming house over the bakery and invited visiting baseball players, circus performers, and vaudeville troupes to stay there. Guests soon began having fruitcakes shipped to friends in distant places, and bakery employees later recalled visits from Will Rogers, Enrico Caruso, John J. McGraw, “Gentlemen Jim” Corbett, John Ringling, and many other celebrities and performers.