Housed in a two-story brick building, with cream-colored tile embellishments and brick laid in a basket weave design, this building has a festive look. The original garage doors have been infilled with tile. At the north end of the building the storefront walls are covered with tile. This is a Contributing Building to the Okmulgee Downtown Historic District.
[Excerpts from this business's history was taken from the Coleman Bakery website] (
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Originally, this building was occupied by People's Bakery, founded by Jack Coleman sometime in the early 1900's. People's was the only bread company in Okmulgee. They had 7 bread trucks and ran 24 hours daily to deliver bread to the surrounding communities. He sold the bakery during the Depression when flour and sugar became scarce.
Coleman's Drive-In, also founded by Jack Coleman, originated in 1955 at another location, as a drive-in with skating carhops, milkshakes, 5 cent All Beef Burgers, Homemade Onion Rings and a long list of All-American Homemade Pies, including pie crust which is made entirely from scratch.
Over the years, the Coleman restaurant and bakery was continued by Marvin Coleman and his sister, Lou Ella. In 1992, Marvin Coleman passed away and Lou Ella's daughter, Alice Holleman came in to help her mother with the restaurant. Lou Ella taught Alice how to make the famous Coleman's pies.
In 2001, when Lou Ella was finally ready and well overdue for retirement, the family closed the doors of the famous restaurant after 46 years. For a couple years after, Alice and youngest son, Ben Holleman made the Coleman's pies for a local deli in Tulsa.
In 2004, Alice, alongside her husband, Randy Holleman, bought the local bakery, called People's Bakery. They renamed the establishment Coleman's Bakery so townspeople would know that the family was back. Opening up, serving homemade soups, sandwiches and quiche, they featured both the made-from-scratch pies and kept on with several of the original "People's" cookie recipes as well.
In 2006, the couple closed the bakery for a few months to put in the grill and fryers to once again make the famous All Beef Burgers and Homemade Onion Rings. The first year open in this location, they made around 1,000 pies between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Thus, Coleman's was back in full swing.
Currently, Coleman's is still operated by Alice and Randy Holleman, with the help of their children and grandchildren.