|
The
Town by
Millie Landis Coyle
The
critics who could not understand why Milton Snavely Hershey chose to
build his factory in a cornfield soon learned that chocolate making
was not his only passion.
Hershey knew that he
had chosen well. He knew that adjacent dairy lands would provide a
high grade of milk for his milk chocolate.
The fact that the
Philadelphia
and Reading Railroad and the Berks and Dauphin Turnpike were within
viewing distance certainly did not escape his notice.
He knew, too, that whatever his future employees would need,
he could build. Milton
Hershey had already laid out the plans for a town, setting aside 150
acres for a park. A
transit system to transport people to his proposed town had already
been chartered in January 1903.
The two dirt roads that intersected just south of the factory site
would be the center of his town and would be named Chocolate and
Cocoa Avenues. In
time, he would convince the railroad company that building a
passenger station and a freight train station within a short
distance from the proposed town and factory would be beneficial to
both the railroad company and the chocolate industry.
By 1905, the six-acre factory was completed and mass production of
Hershey chocolate began. The
chocolate factory was like a magnet drawing young people from the
farms and small towns to make their homes in the small developing
town. Hershey’s plans
included accommodations for his employees and he wanted those
accommodations to have the same high quality as the chocolate he was
making.
Although Milton
Hershey met resistance when he approached the government officials
for establishing a Post Office, he was persistent in his request. In
1905, a small post office opened in the Cocoa House with Ezra F.
Hershey as its first postmaster.
Dr. Martin Hershey replaced Ezra in 1908.
A succession of early postmasters followed.
They were Herbert Newton, George Eppley, John Cope, John
Balsbaugh, Thomas Black, Merle Seavers and Daniel Graeff.
As money flowed in, it was channeled into a construction program
that would eventually become the model industrial town that Milton
Hershey had envisioned. To that end, the Hershey Improvement Company
was organized in 1905. Many of the existing dwellings and old
properties were purchased and renovated to meet the standards
established for a home in Hershey.
The first new dwellings built by the Hershey Improvement
Company were on Trinidad Avenue and Areba Avenue
and could be purchased at reasonable prices.
Well-planned avenues that were lined with rows of shade trees began
to appear. Homes with
spacious lawns, surrounded with shrubbery and flowers produced an
attractive and pleasing appearance.
Milton Hershey was careful to protect the homeowners from
commercial enterprises moving into their residential areas.
Specific restrictions appeared on copies of deeds
transferring property from Milton S. Hershey to the buyer.
Under the direction of Hershey's first civil engineer, Harry Neff
Herr, utilities and a transportation system were provided with the
same high quality that would be expected in a town built by Milton
Hershey.
A telephone line was installed as early as July 1903.
By 1912 the Bell Telephone Company that serviced the Hershey
area had 250 subscribers. At
the time the exchange was installed in the
Hershey
Store
Building
that had been built two years earlier.
In its first twelve years, the town depended on Spring Creek for its
water supply. In 1914, a need for a larger and more permanent water
supply led Herr’s engineering team to Manada Creek which flowed
into nearby Swatara Creek. A dam was built which diverted the water
to two large reservoirs on top of what was then known as Pat's
Hill and where the Hotel Hershey now stands.
The water system was put in place in 1914 and homeowners were
assured that a pure water supply to the town and the factory was
guaranteed for several generations.
Although the reservoirs are no longer used for Hershey's
water supply, they have been attractively maintained and have become
still another monument to Milton Hershey.
The Hershey Transit Company had its first trolley run on
October 21, 1904
. Herr, as chief
engineer, designed the trolley’s course.
Then known as the Hummelstown & Campbelltown Street
Railway, the name was changed to the Hershey Transit Company on
December 13, 1913
. The transit
system, when it was fully developed, provided transportation between
Hershey and
Lebanon,
Elizabethtown, Campbelltown and Hummelstown.
A connection in Hummelstown carried passengers back and forth
to Harrisburg.
Architecturally, the
community buildings that arose in the little town in its first
twenty years represented the spectrum of life that linked together
the many stages of the early twentieth century in
America. In most cases, limestone quarried on the premises was used for the
buildings. Stonecutters
often worked night and day to accomplish their purpose.
The first community building, the Cocoa House, was
erected in 1905.
The three-story limestone building, designed by
Lancaster architect C. Emlin Urban, was located a short distance west of the
factory on
Chocolate Avenue. The building housed a
dormitory for male factory employees, restaurant, bank, general
store, barbershop, and small theatre.
In 1906, a post office
branch was designated, giving recognition to the fact that a
Hershey,
Pennsylvania
did exist. The post
office was placed in the Cocoa House.
Eventually, each facility served by the Cocoa House warranted
a building of its own, and before long, the cornfield was
transformed into an architecturally unique town.
Another limestone building arose next to the Cocoa House that would
accommodate the Hershey Fire Company.
That, too, was of limestone and would, in the course of its
life, serve many purposes after the Fire Company relocated to
Caracas Avenue
.
Along
Chocolate Avenue, other service buildings were soon in place.
They included a barbershop, a blacksmith shop, a gas station
and a service garage.
While the building of the town was one of Hershey’s highest
priorities, he did not overlook suitable accommodations for his own
family. While his home
was being built on a hill east of the factory, he lived with his
wife and mother, Fannie Snavely, in the family homestead where he
was born on
September 13, 1857. The
"Old
Homestead" as it came to be known was located within a mile or so
south of the factory and the developing town.
In 1908, Milton Hershey and his wife, Catharine, moved into the
mansion they called Highpoint. This
magnificent structure was also designed by C. Emlin Urban and built
of limestone quarried from the premises.
The site of the mansion provided the advantage of a
picturesque surrounding and, as Hershey would have wanted it, a
perfect view of the factory and the town.
Fannie Snavely was provided with a modest brick home directly across
the street from the chocolate factory where her son was known to
visit her every day.
Unable to have children of their own, Milton
and Catharine established a home for orphaned boys. Milton S.
Hershey once remarked that because he could not have heirs of his
own, he would make orphan boys in the
United States
his heirs. On
November 15, 1909, the Hershey’s signed a Deed of Trust for the establishment of
the
Hershey
Industrial
School
. One of the main objectives of the school was to train young men to
useful trades and occupations that would earn them a livelihood.
The first boys were housed and schooled in the
Homestead
, Milton Hershey’s birthplace.
Between 1910 and 1920, the town underwent a second stage of growth.
In 1910, the general store in the Cocoa House was moved to
the large new Hershey Store building on the southwest corner of
Cocoa
and Chocolate. The
building was designed to accommodate an inn on the second floor and
a department store on the ground floor and basement.
The year 1910 also marked the opening of Hershey’s first elegant
dining facility. The Café
was built onto the west end of the chocolate factory.
In 1911, an abattoir was built along
West Chocolate Avenue. A laundry appeared in 1912 on
Park Avenue, which was later moved to
West Chocolate Avenue. The farming community
could find all that was needed at the large three-story farm
implement building which opened at the corner of
Mill Street
and West Chocolate Avenue
in 1912
At the same time, a beautiful Y.W.C.A. was built on the site where
Milton S. Hershey had built his garage and horse stable, which was
destroyed by fire in early 1911.
The building was located on the north side of the railroad
tracks within full view of the town.
In 1912, Milton S. Hershey commissioned his architect, C. Emlin
Urban to design a building of beauty and utility to serve the needs
of the Hershey Trust Company and the Hershey National Bank.
The building, constructed of
Lancaster
red brick and
Vermont
marble, was built on the corner of
West Chocolate Avenue and
Park Avenue
and opened in August 1914.
An architecturally similar three-story brick building was built on
the corner of West Chocolate and
Park Avenue
around 1915. It served as the Hershey Press building until 1920,
when it was completely renovated to accommodate the department store
that was moved from its original location on Chocolate and Cocoa
Avenues. The building on
Chocolate and
Cocoa
became the Community Inn and later, the Cocoa Inn.
In 1906, Milton
Hershey replaced the old
Greiner
School
that stood at the crossroads with the larger
McKinley
School
. In 1914, the need for
a larger school to accommodate the growing population of children
became apparent and Milton S. Hershey, true to his ideals, wanted it
to be the best.
Milton S. Hershey, the
visionary, saw this as a time to close the small rural schools
scattered throughout the township and build a large consolidated
school to accommodate all the children in
Derry
Township. As a result, on
October 13, 1914
, the town celebrated the dedication of the
M.
S.
Hershey
Consolidated School
of
Derry
Township. In 1925, an additional three-story brick high school and a
vocational building were added to form a semi-circle on the
school's location on
East Granada Avenue
.
On the north side of town, a recreation park was blossoming, and a
convention hall was rising. Mr.
Hershey, anxious to draw people to his town, saw this as a drawing
card for his industrial experiment.
The Hershey Convention Hall, later to become the
Hershey
Museum, opened on May 30. 1914. The
Convention Hall would later become the
Hershey
Ice
Palace
and the home ice for Hershey's professional hockey team.
Today, it houses the
Hershey
Museum
.
The years between 1910 and 1920 saw not only new buildings but also
the transformation of many buildings.
The little Cocoa House, having outgrown its original need,
became a first class recreational facility by adding a gymnasium, a
large swimming pool and meeting rooms.
For a time it served as a Y.M.C.A building, and later it
became the Men’s Club. A
reading room was also located in the building and served for a short
time as the Hershey Library.
The 150 acres that had been set aside for a park boasted a spacious
park pavilion. Free
vaudeville shows and dances were offered weekly.
A Hershey Band gave concerts in the park on weekends and some
summer evenings. In
time, a restaurant was added, followed by a merry-go-round. Boating
was a popular past time.
For garden lovers, two greenhouses and a nursery were built at lower
Mansion and Derry Roads. The greenhouses sold every variety of
plants and landscaping and garden maintenance could be purchased as
a service.
It was not Catharine's destiny to enjoy Highpoint for long.
After a long debilitating muscular illness, Catharine died in
1915, seven years after moving into the mansion.
In that short time, she managed to leave a legacy for all of
the townspeople and visitors to enjoy.
It was Catharine who designed the magnificent gardens that
surrounded Highpoint. The
gardens were open to the public during her lifetime and for at least
a decade after her death.
When Milton
Hershey's wife died in 1915, he began to spend much of his time
away from the town he so desperately sought to enjoy.
He spent much of that time in
Havana, Cuba
where he was building a second Utopian industrial town.
Throughout the 1920s Hershey poured much of his profit into
Cuba, where he built the largest sugar refinery on the island.
There, too, he built houses for his workers, and established
an orphanage. An 80-mile electric railway, the only one on the
island, was built to accommodate both the workers and the
transportation of the sugar cane to the refinery.
Back in Hershey, construction of houses continued, and with easy
credit available, seventy five per cent of the residents owned their
own homes. In 1927, the
Hershey Estates took over the services previously provided by the
Hershey Improvement Company. All of the Hershey entities, with the
exception of the chocolate industry, came under the jurisdiction of
the Hershey Estates.
In 1928, at the age of 71, Milton S. Hershey gave up his home of
twenty years. Highpoint
was converted into a Country Club.
Hershey kept only a sitting room and a bedroom on the second
floor.
The depression years which threw the country in a state of decline
proved to be a boon to the model town that seemed to lack for
nothing. Milton S.
Hershey decided it was time to build on an even more grandiose
scale. He reportedly
remarked "It's now
that a man with money should do something for the people."
During this period, employees of the Hershey Lumber Company who were
hired to build wooden shipping crates for the factory became jobless
when a change in the method of shipping chocolate no longer required
the wooden crates. The
men were put to work on the construction teams of the multi-million
dollar buildings that would rise in Hershey from 1929 to 1936.
The three million dollar community building, begun in 1929 was
dedicated in 1933. The
building held a 58 bed hospital, dormitories for men, a large
swimming pool, recreational facilities, classrooms for the Hershey
Industrial boys, a cafeteria, a public library and two theatres.
As was often the case, the appearance of a new building often
facilitated moves throughout the town.
The Men's Club, which had replaced the Cocoa House, was
moved to the new
Community
Building. The dormitories in the
Men’s Club were turned over to the women who had been housed in
the Y.W.C.A. building. The recreational facilities were opened to
all women and the building became known as the Women's Club.
The Y.W.C.A. building
was remodeled and made into an attractive apartment complex.
The beautiful Spanish style Hotel Hershey, built in 1934, had always
been one of Milton Hershey’s dreams.
Standing on top of a hill overlooking the town, the beautiful
Hotel Hershey stands as a monument to the man who kept many families
alive and well at the height of the depression years.
The 1.5 million dollar school for Milton Hershey's orphan boys was
completed in 1934. When
the boys moved into the Senior High School, the classrooms on the
second floor of the community building became available to
accommodate a Junior College that would be tuition free for
Derry
Township
residents. The move reflected Milton Hershey's concern for the
high school graduates who could not find employment during the
stagnant economic era. In 1936, the Hershey Sports Arena, the
largest span monolithic concrete structure in the United States
had become a reality. It
was built by Hershey's labor force in a matter of eight months.
By the end of the depression years, the town of Hershey
could boast, in addition to these large buildings, a ten-acre
stadium, an amusement area of about 1,000 acres, which included a
ballroom, four golf courses, the state's largest swimming pool,
and the country's largest zoo.
Even during Hershey lifetime the town was called the "Golf Capital
of Pennsylvania." Though
Milton Hershey was only an occasional golfer, he felt that the
residents of the community should not have to travel out of Hershey
to enjoy a game of golf. To
that end, he employed a golf architect of national acclaim to design
the town's golf courses. True
to his straight-laced upbringing, he made two stipulations.
One was that golf courses needed to be built for the
community where the average wage earner could enjoy golf at a
reasonable fee. The other was that golf courses be placed only on
land that was not good for farming. At the time of his death, there
were four first-rate golf courses in Hershey.
Hershey is often referred to as "the town built on chocolate."
It can also be said that it is a town built from the heart
and soul of one man, who cared about people and their quality of
life. A typical example
of his benevolence was his concern about the indebtednesses of the
five churches in the community resulting from the depression.
Though not affiliated with any particular denomination, in
1935 Milton Hershey gave each of the churches a gift of $20,000.
Milton S. Hershey
death in October 1945 at the age of 88 had a profound effect on his
townspeople. Although
they felt a deep sense of loss, many knew that they had been well
provided for, and life would always be good in Hershey.
|
