Hershey Chocolate Factory
Updated July 2014 | By Matthew Christopher
After selling his caramel business in Lancaster, Milton Hershey began construction of the original Hershey Chocolate Factory in 1903 in Derry Church, PA, a town that would later come to be named Hershey after him. Despite some brutal strikes in the 1930s, Hershey was known for his philanthropy and his dedication to improving the lives of his workers, a legacy that has inspired fierce loyalty in many even to this day. Many area attractions, including Hersheypark, Hershey Gardens, the Hershey Theater, and the Hershey Museum, were founded for the enjoyment of his workers and are still in operation currently. Milton Hershey also established the Hershey Industrial School (later renamed the Milton Hershey School) for orphaned boys as he and his wife were unable to have children of their own. The Hershey Company provided chocolate bar rations to troops during World War II and this chocolate served as the genesis of Mars Inc.'s famous M&Ms. M&Ms used Hershey chocolate during rationing and were created in collaboration between the president of Hershey's son and Frederick Mars.
In the decades that followed, Hershey Chocolate grew exponentially in size and the original factory complex added many buildings, becoming a dense maze of hallways, vats, and pipes that created the eponymous chocolate bars, Hershey's Kisses, chocolate syrup, and a myriad of other products that came and went as other companies were acquired and candy lines were introduced and discontinued. Milton Hershey passed away in 1945, leaving the Milton Hershey School Trust with a controlling interest in the Hershey Company, as well as ownership of Chocolate World and Hershey Entertainment and Resorts, which in turn owns Hersheypark. The original factory housed all production until 1963, when a factory in Smith Falls, Ontario opened, followed by one in Oakdale, CA in 1965.
Controversies beset the Hershey Company in the new millennium. These included legal disputes over the calling candy 'milk chocolate' when vegetable oils replaced cocoa butter and milk substitutes were used, a dismissed price-fixing suit, Hershey's refusal to adopt fair trade practices (including measures to prevent child labor), use of the MHS Trust as a "GOP slush fund", and an ugly incident involving the foreign exchange students who had paid to see the country and were instead placed in exploitative conditions in the Palmyra plant.
By far the most controversial was the closure of the Smith Falls and Oakdale plants in 2008 to move production to new facilities in Monterey, Mexico and another production facility in Brazil. Angered by the move, many consumers boycotted Hershey. The original factory in Hershey was closed in 2012, ostensibly to move production to a newly expanded West Hershey plant, where Hershey Kisses and other products are still manufactured. According to a Pennlive article, the West Hershey facility is the "largest and most sophisticated in the world", however the article goes on to state, "In recent years, Hershey has shifted production to Mexico and carried out a global restructuring that eliminated about 1,500 North American jobs, including about 800 in the midstate." Demolition began on the original factory in 2013.
One reader, Brian Refford, offered what I thought was an informative and balanced assessment:
"I live within sight of the smokestacks, and I had a part-time job as security at the original 19 E. Chocolate Avenue factory [while] it was being demolished. It was upsetting to see the old factory destroyed. Of the 25 buildings that comprised the old factory, twenty were demolished. Five are currently being re-purposed as office space. Production ceased in January 2012, but most of the buildings had not been used for years, and were in very poor condition. Hershey stopped smelling of chocolate the day production was stopped. Most of the production was shifted to the recently expanded West Hershey plant - originally built in 1991 - not Mexico. Employees were given the option of early retirement, and those with seniority could choose to work at the West Hershey plant. Those with less than 15 years service were simply let go. Hershey does produce chocolate and other confections around the world, and has for decades. There were several buildings that could have been saved - buildings 24, 25, 34, and the Engineering Building were well-built reinforced concrete and limestone buildings that were irreplaceable."
In contrast to Brian's statement, personally I did not think the original buildings appeared to be in very poor condition overall. However in some ways this is irrelevant as upgrading the means of production is also a significant factor and I am not an engineer so I have little insight there. One way or another, the original factory was demolished within a year of closing. On one hand there are areas that may have been unable to be easily repurposed due in part to the density and specificity of the complex. On the other, it seems that a year is a very short amount of time to try to find alternate uses and my guess is that was never seriously considered. If it had been important to the company to save it, they would have made more of an open and transparent effort to do so. The actual demolition had begun within a year, which means that the process had been started much earlier, as permits and contracts for such an enormous project don't happen overnight. However, some locals have raised the counterargument that tearing down the factory was the only responsible move and that had the company not done so, it would have become an abandoned eyesore like many other closed production facilities.
I spent several years growing up in Hershey. The factory, and Milton Hershey himself, were near mythical local fixtures and the very reason for the town's existence. While the Hershey Company and the MHS Trust that runs it own the factory, it was a huge part of the community too, and it was a very sad experience for many to watch it be destroyed. On a personal level it was possibly the most difficult place I've photographed the erasure of. No matter how you feel about the shifts in production means and location or whether the demolition of the plant was necessary or not, it marked the end of an era for the company itself, the town, and Hershey's legacy. When I photographed it, I wasn't there to create some political polemic, I was there to say goodbye.
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