Beginnings [1]
The privately owned and planned community of M.S. Hershey, a former Lancaster caramel manufacturer, who bought a cornfield here in 1903 and created a chocolate manufacturing center. Clumps of elm, maple, oak, and chestnut trees line Spring Creek, which bisects the town. Within a short distance of Chocolate Avenue, the main thoroughfare, redolent with rich odors from the world's largest chocolate factory, are numerous places for work and play that M.S. Hershey erected. The 4,000 employees of the chocolate plant come from a wide area.
The Hershey Chocolate Plant, Chocolate Ave. east of Cocoa Ave., produces 625,000 pounds of chocolate daily. This model plant was disturbed in April 1937 by a sitdown strike when a group of CIO workers demanded the dissolution of the Loyal Workers Club, which they termed a company union. After the strikers had occupied the plant for about a week, they were ejected, and in a subsequent NLRB election the CIO group was defeated.
The Hershey Chocolate Office Building, adjoining the factory, is a windowless limestone structure, equipped with air-conditioning and indirect lighting. Curiosity about the weather is satisfied by indicators in every office.
Hershey Park (bandshell concerts, picnicking, sunken gardens, zoo, etc.), entrance on Park Ave. north of Chocolate Ave., is a 1,ooo-acre landscaped tract.
The "Old Session House" of the Derry Presbyterian Church, SW. cor. Derry and Mansion Roads, a clapboard covered log structure erected in 1732, is now entirely enclosed in glass. It was used as the pastor's study and an academy. The gray stone church, with its gables and square crenellated tower, was built in 1884 on the site of earlier log and frame structures, the former dating from 1724.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Chocolate Avenue