(Richmond Bakery circa 2014. Photo via Google Streetview.)
The Richmond Bakery sign has been put up for auction. The owners of Danby’s Roadhouse, who took over the building earlier this year, posted this note to Facebook today:
We are auctioning off the Richmond Bakery sign online in conjunction with the reopening of the Richmond Bakery – Grand opening this Saturday and Sunday August 20 and 21st. All bids in minimum $10 increments and bids must be on the picture attached to this post on Danbys Roadhouse FaceBook page. Bid starts at $100. All proceeds to the Richmond Food bank. Bidding starts effective August 16, 2016, closing August 21st at 4pm (last bid time stamped at 3:59pm wins). Good luck to all!
As of 9:00pm Tuesday the bidding was already up to $350.
The original bakery shut its doors in August 2014, and there was a lot of interest expressed from the community and collectors in acquiring the sign.
One group that won’t be bidding is the Goulbourn Museum. Last fall, when word first went out that the old sign would be auctioned off, a number of people suggested that it should be donated to the museum’s collection. But the museum doesn’t have enough space.
“We hope that whoever purchases the sign in the auction can give it a good home. Although we’d love to preserve it, Goulbourn Museum is simply too small and we wouldn’t have the storage space,” said curator manager Kathryn Jamieson.