How Baiting Hollow’s Fred Terry created ‘Gingerbread University’

On a Friday afternoon in early December, Joanne Fernandes sat in the Naugles Barn at the Hallockville Museum Farm. Surrounded by Christmas decorations and the air smelling of fresh gingerbread, she decorated a gingerbread house using candies, pretzels and holiday cookies. 

Fernandes had come all the way to Northville from Queens to spend part of her afternoon at Gingerbread University, a gingerbread decorating center she found out about online. When she was finished decorating her house, adorned with gumdrops and m&ms, she had one last thing on her agenda: saying hello to its founder.

“I’ve made chocolate houses, but I can’t do this,” Fernandes said. “It’s cute.”

“This is so adorable. And next year I’m coming [back]. I just texted my cousin and my sister — and I want to get a group of girls and we’ll come together,” she said.

Fernandes asked for the owner’s first name. “Gingerbread. Last name’s Fred,” the owner said with a laugh, pointing to his hat. “I’m Fred Terry.” 

Terry, 79, of Baiting Hollow has made Gingerbread University his passion project for almost three decades. He started Gingerbread University in 1996, then a professor at Nassau Community College, as an activity to do in the community at the end of the semester, he said.

The media got wind of it and it blew up into something much bigger, Terry said. 

“So I decided I was going to take a barn complex that I had and convert it into a little retail gingerbread decorating center primarily for families and children. It was not born out of any big entrepreneurial needs,” said Terry, who owns the successful Lobster Roll restaurant on the South Fork.

Gingerbread University grew “far, far beyond” what Terry envisioned, he said. He said he considered commercializing it and having Gingerbread Universities all across the country. Big box retailers tried to partner with him to create kits, he said, but he ended up keeping Gingerbread University a one-of-a-kind local experience.

“I could scale this into a multimillion dollar operation. And I’m very, very content to let people come out in the country and do something that they cannot do anywhere else,” Terry said.

Gingerbread University has bounced around locations since its inception and landed in Northville this holiday season. Hosting Gingerbread University at the barn on the Hallockville Museum Farm is also special for Terry, a descendant of the Hallocks, one of the oldest European families who settled on the North Fork. 

Thousands of people have reserved their spot to come out to Hallockville and decorate at Gingerbread University this year, Terry said. The gingerbread at Gingerbread University is homemade with Barbados molasses, he said, and can be cut into all different shapes and designs for decorating. Gingerbread University also offers gluten-free gingerbread. The icing is also homemade and the decorating candy is all from high quality name-brands, he said. 

“It’s wonderful at my stage of life to have such a happy place where people can have a family experience without shooting something that’s dancing across the TV screen or looking at an iPad or an iPhone,” Terry said.

“When grandma and granddaughter sit across from each other making a gingerbread house, they’re in it,” Terry said. “And when husband and wife sit across from each other, they get in fights over where to put an m&m.” 

Decorating a gingerbread house is not just a fun activity, but a “personal artistic endeavor” that has therapeutic effects, Terry said.

Everyone who decorates at Gingerbread University receives a diploma in “Gingerbreadology.” 

Gingerbread University also makes specialized gingerbread constructions. Terry said that this year it made a large footlong fire truck with oreo wheels out of gingerbread for the Riverhead Fire Department, and made a Hanukkah themed house for Irwin Simon, the chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical company Tilray. 

Gingerbread University and his love for gingerbread has also inspired Terry to write children’s books. Terry has written two books — and is working on a third — focusing on gingerbread people who are baked with imperfections. 

“They’re either too tall, she’s too short, they’re cracked. And they all find resolutions from a wizard and live happily ever after,” he said.

Both of his published books, titled “Gingerbread for All Seasons” and “Big Dan the Gingerbread Man,” are illustrated by Anna Jurinich, a well-known East End artist. The book’s illustrations are in an old European art style, copies of which currently hang on the walls of the Naugles Barn while people decorate their gingerbread houses. 

As for his nickname, “Gingerbread Fred” was bestowed his title by children attending Gingerbread University and “it stuck,” Terry said.

“When those kids come to the door and see me they think they’re in Disney World meeting the guru or something,” Terry said. “It’s very humbling.” 

Some of the proceeds generated by Gingerbread University go to Smile Train, Terry said. The nonprofit organization provides reconstructive surgery to children born with cleft palates, a split in the mouth that can cause difficulty eating, breathing, hearing, speaking — and smiling. (Smile Train did not respond to an email requesting comment for this story prior to publication time.)

“This whole operation is centered around being able to smile,” Terry said. “If you don’t leave here with a smile, we’ll follow you out to your car and make sure you’re smiling when you leave.”

Terry would not give an exact number of how much he’s contributed to Smile Train over the years, but he said it was “several thousand dollars.”

“This is my smiley place. This is a labor of love,” Terry said.

Gingerbread University is open from Thursday through Sunday until Dec. 23. You can visit gingerbreaduniversity.com to inquire about a reservation. Gingerbread University will also be open two days after Christmas on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.