Update 35: Hershey PA

Update 35: Hershey, PA  October 5, 2010

I decided to have a separate update just for Hershey, PA

Hershey's Chocolate World includes the visitor center with lots of activities. The Marketplace shops sell the usual souvenirs AND all kinds of Hershey products in a variety of packaging.

A 3-D show highlights the Hershey cartoon characters. A food court offers a small variety of foods. You can create your own candy bar or design a dessert creation. The Great American Chocolate Tour shows how the candy is made. Trolley ride tickets are purchased here too.

We took in the Hershey's Great American Chocolate Tour. The lead-in ramp gives visitors a short history of the company. Then the ramp turns and travels through a tropical jungle and describes the cultivation of the cacao bean. An escalator takes you down to a revolving floor that helps you hop into a track car. The car travels through the "Hershey chocolate factory", like a Disneyland ride, showing how chocolate is made from the coming of the cacao beans to shipping out the final product. Cute cows help tell the story.

The Marketplace is loaded with racks and racks of candy. After lunch in the food court and checking out the Marketplace we went out to board the trolley.

The trolley is really a bus made to look like a trolley. The guys that drive and guide the tour tell some of those lame jokes that make you groan or laugh. As they tell the story of Milton Hershey throughout the tour, every so often they pass samples from the different kinds of  "kisses".

Milton Hershey failed and went bankrupt 3-4 times trying to make a go of a candy store. He lost lots of money belonging to family members who supported his dreams.  Then he went to Colorado to mine with his father for awhile.  While there he learned how to add milk to camels.  Next he returned to Pennsylvania and opened a caramel store.  The candy didn't sell well locally, but did a great business overseas in England.  Hershey went to England  and discovered  the English were wrapping his caramels in chocolate. Then he went to Switzerland and met Lindt who knew how to make milk chocolate.

Back in the states he went to a World Expo and saw the machines needed to make milk chocolate. He bought them all and took them to Hershey PA. He also bought about 56 dairy farms to be able to control the milk product he needed.  He built the factory to produce milk chocolate. He also built homes for the workers, who could then purchase those homes at a low price and with no interest.  Hershey made nicer homes for the next level of management to purchase.  He built whatever the town needed around the factory. 

Later he went to Cuba and purchased a sugar plantation.  I can't remember if he purchased cacao farms or not. His factory includes 24 huge silos full of cacao beans: an eight month supply.

During the Great Depression his construction company kept the town moving, and Hershey, the town, felt little of the effects.

  

The first Hershey kiss came off the production line in 1910.  I was surprised that milk chocolate wasn't easily accessible until this time.

The town has chocolate and silver kiss street lights where Chocolate Avenue crosses Cocoa Avenue.

Today there are 3 plants.  35 million kisses are made per day, and 1500 chocolate bars are made per minute.

There is also a Hershey stadium and a large amusement park.

Milton and Catherine Hershey could not have children, so in 1909 they created an Industrial School for needy boys.  Students attend school free of charge and receive housing; education, clothing, meals, as well as medical, dental, religious, psychological and other services.

Classes were first held in the family homestead.  The school grew and developed into the largest, privately funded residential boarding school in the United States.  1900 boys and girls are enrolled in the school today.

 Hershey wanted a "family" environment.  So all the kids are housed in a house with 10-12 students and a set of  "house parents". The large rambling ranch houses are situated around the different levels.  Elementary kids live by the elementary school.  When they move on the junior high, the kids move to a new family by that school and again for high school.  An active agriculture program teaches some kids farming.  During their senior years are students are housed in a dorm like setting and are responsible to taking care of their own clothes, food, laundry, finances, etc. to prepare them for the real world. Upon graduation the students are given funds (along with a computer each) to attend college, or enter the work force. There education includes career/technical education as well as programs in agriculture and environment.  Health care is provided.

The campus includes: a health center, a learning resource room, visual arts center, performance gym, student center, agricultural and environmental education center, classroom buildings, student homes, and an alumni campus.

Athletic and intramural facilities include: an ice-skating rink, lighted tennis courts, a 7,000 seat football stadium, soccer and field hockey fields, baseball diamonds, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and an Olympic size track.

Milton built Catherine a beautiful mansion where he could look at the factory. They moved from the homestead and into the big house. She put in outstanding gardens at the time. She only lived there a short time before she died at age 42. The mansion now houses the offices of the trustees.

Each Sunday students are expected to dress up and attend a church service in the Founder's Hall.  We got off the trolley and peeked in the hall. 

A large marble floor rotunda is capped with a beautiful dome ceiling 74 feet high on the interior and 137 feet exterior height. . The dome is second in size and its unsupported design to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. 

 The auditorium where the service is held holds 2600 people.  Its fully equipped sound/lighted stage ranks as the largest in Pennsylvania.

When Milton Hershey died he left $60 million dollars in a trust fund to run the school.  The trustees contracted with Penn State and brought a large hospital complex to Hershey that includes a top cardio center.

The town admires what Milton Hershey accomplished during his lifetime. You can hear it in their voices. They are very proud of their town and work hard to keep the Hershey the kind of town that Milton wanted.  Milton Hershey was an amazing man who definitely made Hershey, PA  "the Sweetest Place on Earth"!