The Hershey Story Museum

Our stay at Hershey Lodge included tickets to The Hershey Story, a museum on the main street (Chocolate Avenue, naturally) of the town. The site of the museum also has a cafe and a "Chocolate Lab" where people can make up their own confections (though they both cost extra).

The sign outside

The main entrance

The exhibit on Hershey (which includes the history of both Milton Hershey, the founder, and the company) is upstairs. The displays start with the Hershey's life, starting as a maker of caramels. He even had a display/work box much like we saw in the Wonka movie.

Personal confection-making items

Hershey decided caramels were not the future of candy, so he switched over to chocolate. Even though chocolate was, in the late 1800s, a luxury item that only the rich could afford, he came up with a process that would make the delicious treat with less expense. He made it affordable for the masses with innovations in roasting the beans (allowing him to get good results with even lower-quality beans) and combining the ingredients in different ways.

The museum has interactive exhibits that keep the patrons, especially the younger ones, engaged.

Listening to history on an old-style phone

What a price!

Piecing together a production line

Part of Herhsey's inspiration was visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. He bought some chocolate-making machinery that was on display and took it back to Pennsylvania.

Recreation of the golden ticket

One wall of the museum includes a split timeline covering the main events and innovations of Hershey's chocolate on the top and other contemporary world events on the bottom.

Start of the Hershey timeline

Mid-1900s

Like many other companies, they were constantly updating and innovating their products. Holiday tie-ins were a natural way to get more sales, and not just for Halloween.

A display of holiday-themed treats

Old-time chocolates and cash register

The history of the company and how Hershey handled it is fascinating. He found that working in the cities of Pennsylvania was not optimal. Often the workers had miserable living conditions and it was expensive to import all the ingredients (cocoa beans, sugar, milk, etc.). Real estate was also more expensive. He decided to follow the example of other industrialists and make a factory town, though his was different.

Rather than maximize profits by exploiting the workers, he built affordable housing that he encouraged the employees to purchase rather than rent. Ownership bring a sense of responsibility. He also created a lot of recreational opportunities, including vast parks with swimming pools and ball fields. The schools were important to him and he financed a boarding school for orphan boys. He believed a contented and prosperous worker force would make a prosperous company.

Planning the town

Furniture and service-ware from Hershey's home

Hershey moved to the Pennsylvania countryside because it put his company closer to at least one ingredient they required--milk! He had a good relationship with the dairy farmers in the area and built up the infrastructure to get milk delivered as quickly as possible. Railways and roads were constructed at Hershey's expense.

During World War I, sugar became difficult to get. Hershey bought a plant in Cuba and made another town there on the same model as the Pennsylvania town. The museum had a temporary exhibit downstairs, which we visited later, so more on that further in this post.

Not really a franchise but a great expansion

The company did have some labor problems though they worked diligently to solve problems. Often, Hershey took input from the workers, especially on ways to improve processes in the production line. The workers were the closest to the problem and sometimes had creative solutions that worked well. His commitment to innovation and creativity was not limited to himself. His commitment to people is inspiring.

Interestingly, one labor dispute lead to some new rules at the plant:

Were they their own best customers?

The museum ends with some of the civic achievements of the town.

Kids baseball and gear from the fire department

Downstairs, we saw an extended exhibit on the town in Cuba founded by Hershey.

Facts about Cuba

Hershey, Cuba

Having control over the sugar production saved some headaches for the company. The process of changing sugar cane into usable sugar products (for home and industrials uses) was done mostly there. Like in Pennsylvania, innovation and creativity were encouraged.

Sugar-processing machine

100-pound bags of sugar

Individually-wrapped sugar cubes!

The displays describe the homes that were built for the workers and the integration of leisure opportunities for the workers. They even built a school for orphans in Cuba!

The housing plan

The Cuban orphans

Unfortunately, the difficult political situation in Cuba made it hard for the plant to be successful. By the mid-1940s, Hershey sold all their assets in Cuba.

The end of their collaboration

The museum is a fascinating place to visit. Milton Hershey was a great businessman and a philanthropic genius. I was very impressed with him and the history of his company.

We did not get any treats at the cafe (we went elsewhere for lunch). We did not make our own confections either since the kids were "museumed-out" by this point.