HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Bend bakery in a circa-1921 iron-works payroll office where staff report crashes from the back and doors that close on their own.
50 SE Scott St, Bend, OR 97702
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
No admission; standard bakery and cafe pricing for pastries, coffee, and lunch.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Single-story converted brick-and-frame commercial building in the Old Ironworks district with a small cafe interior and patio.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1921 · Former Bend Iron Works payroll office (circa 1921) · Old Ironworks Arts District · Early Central Oregon industrial heritage
The Sparrow Bakery occupies the former office of the Bend Iron Works, a foundry building constructed circa 1921 on SE Scott Street in what is today Bend's Old Ironworks Arts District. According to Vanessa Ivey, manager of the Des Chutes Historical Museum, payroll for the iron works was dropped off by train and kept in a large safe in the assayer's office during the 1920s, which is why the building was built with a vault.
The foundry operated for decades, later under the name Mid-Oregon Iron Works, before the industrial use wound down and the surrounding blocks were redeveloped into an arts and maker district. The Sparrow Bakery took over the old office and became known across Central Oregon for its Ocean Roll, a cardamom-sugar pastry.
The Bend Bulletin documented the building's transition from payroll office to bakery in a 2016 feature, tracing the safe, the assayer's office, and the early-1920s construction date. The Old Ironworks district around it preserves the early industrial character of this part of Bend, with the bakery building standing as one of the better-known surviving pieces of the foundry complex.
Sources
The haunting at The Sparrow Bakery is local lore rather than a formal investigation, but it is reported in regional press rather than only on aggregator sites. Co-owner Jessica Keatman told the Bend Bulletin there is "definitely" a ghost, one the staff have named Jackson. The story, echoed in Des Chutes Historical Museum records, holds that the assayer who once worked in the payroll office still objects to the door near the old safe being left open and closes it himself.
The most consistent reports involve sound. Staff describe loud crashes coming from the back of the store, but when they investigate, nothing has been moved or knocked over. Doors are said to open and close without anyone near them, and at least one worker reported hearing laughter from the back room.
Because the figure named in the lore is an unnamed historical assayer rather than a documented, identifiable individual, the claims rest on staff testimony and museum-held tradition. The strong, verifiable element here is the building's iron-works history; the haunting remains a workplace story passed between bakery staff.
Notable Entities
Stop in at the working Sparrow Bakery, known for its Ocean Roll pastry, inside the former Bend Iron Works payroll office. The building keeps its early-1920s industrial bones, and staff are open about the resident ghost they call Jackson, said to dislike the old vault door being left open.
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