.png)
.webp)
Hershey PA’s history, from utopian worker’s paradise to dark secrets.
After selling the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1900 for one million dollars, Milton Hershey founded The Hershey Company in rural Derry Township, Pennsylvania.
Derry was known for its abundance of milk cows, where the dairy was essential for milk chocolate production.
Beyond building a factory, Hershey constructed a comprehensive company town with well-designed housing, schools, parks, and public transportation.
The town was developed alongside factory construction in 1903, with amenities like Hershey Park created to enhance workers’ quality of life.
The Milton Hershey School was founded in 1909 by Milton and his wife, Catherine Hershey, as the Hershey Industrial School for orphaned boys.
In 1918, after Catherine’s death, Milton transferred his fortune to a trust dedicated to funding the school, ensuring its perpetual operation as he had no kids of his own.
It began serving only white male orphans. Later the school expanded in the 1960s-70s to include non-white students and girls.
Today, the Milton Hershey School provides tuition-free education to over 2,150 students (pre-K through 12th grade) on its Hershey, Pennsylvania campus.
The Hersheypark “sack ride” opened in the 1930s as a deliberately exploitative attraction.
Young women were placed in burlap sacks that descended down an incline past strategically positioned air vents.
Operators activated these “blow holes” to force air upward, intentionally lifting riders’ skirts.
It was a scandal that was designed specifically for inappropriate viewing and peeping Toms.
It drew criticism during the late 1960s as public standards shifted toward respectful entertainment.
The ride was finally shut down in 1972 and has been a stain on Hershey, PA, ever since.
During the Great Depression, worsening economic conditions eroded what was once a great place to work at The Hershey Company.
On April 2, 1937, workers led by Russell “Bull” Behman forced a sit-down strike after facing reduced hours, wage cuts, and eliminated bonuses.
The strike started out peacefully but went bad fast when management fired key organizers.
Five days later, a group of anti-union people, including company loyalists and dependent dairy farmers, violently expelled strikers from the factory using clubs and ice picks.
The brutal suppression ended the immediate labor action, which damaged Hershey PA’s utopian image.
Milton Hershey later reinstated benefits to restore stability, but the damage was done, as it revealed issues with the paternalistic company town model.
Hershey Air Park operated from July 31, 1944, to January 31, 1981, as part of Milton Hershey’s comprehensive town development.
It offered flying lessons, aircraft rentals, and sightseeing tours and expanded under managers Herbert Erdman and later Harry Williamson.
In the 1960s, the runway was lengthened to 3,000 feet and paved with asphalt.
Bob Mumma leased and renamed it “Derry Aire” in the early 1970s. However, growing safety concerns forced its closure.
The land was later repurposed for Hershey’s Chocolate World parking and events like the Antique Auto Show.
In 1963, Hershey Company president Samuel Hinkle started a street lighting modernization project for the town of Hershey.
Hinkle directed company electrical engineer Don Chubb to create something uniquely “Hershey.”
After consulting major manufacturers, they selected a Kiss-shaped street light prototype from Line Material Company, made through aluminum metal spinning.
Two designs were created—one representing a wrapped Kiss, another unwrapped.
On December 23, 1963, 107 of these Kiss-shaped street lights were installed along Chocolate Avenue.
Hershey’s Chocolate World opened in 1973 with much fanfare, introducing the Chocolate Tour ride which received singing animatronic cows in 2006 that performed pop songs like “Milkshake.”
A famous ride, the SooperDooperLooper, was designed by Werner Stengel and built by Anton Schwarzkopf—it opened July 4, 1977, as the East Coast’s first modern looping roller coaster. The ride cost $3-million attraction and featured a single vertical loop, reaching speeds of 45 mph.
In 2007, Hershey’s created a 30,000-pound chocolate Kiss to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hershey’s Kisses (introduced in 1907).
The 12-foot structure was built with 152 workers who spent nine days assembling chocolate bricks using liquid chocolate mortar.
The completed Kiss was wrapped in 16,000 feet of the signature silver foil and displayed at Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)