Hershey altered its hiring policies when needed.  Employment guidelines were often overlooked and ignored when the need for employees was great.  During World War II Hershey experienced a significant shortage of male employees as most men enlisted or were drafted into service.  Women and teenagers who were often underage were hired to fill those vacancies.  Even though he was underage Bill Cagnoli  found work as a bellhop at the Hotel Hershey.

Well, I remember I took a job during World War II. There was such a shortage of workers during World War II in Hershey, that at the age of 13 and a half or 14, I went to the Hotel Hershey to be a busboy and a bellhop. Even though you had to be 16 and have a working permit, Hotel Hershey hired me because they were so desperate for help. As tall as I am now, that’s how tall I was when I was 14 and 15. I didn’t grow from that age on, you know, but I was very tall. So anyway, they saw how tall I was and big I was. They assumed I would pass for 16. They falsified my age, or I falsified it, or however. We didn’t even put down the age.

 

Hotel Hershey's first bellman, Al McKinney, stands ready to greet guests. 1933

Sometimes Hershey employers ignored age restrictions when they knew that the family need was great.  Hershey was a small town and the public school and Hershey Chocolate Corporation often cooperated with each other helping students find work.  Sam Tancredi, whose father was an invalid, began working part-time to help support his family when he was only 8 years old.  With the help of the School District  he left school at age 15 to take a full time job at the chocolate factory.

It was mostly through the efforts of Mrs. Murrie, the wife of the then President of the Chocolate Company, that I obtained a job. Apparently, she had become aware of the family need and stepped in to help. . . .On April 16, 1929, my 15th birthday, [Mr. A. M. Hinkle], the Principal of our school, called me into his office and told me that he was happy that I was 16 years of age and could get a working permit so I could go to work to help the family. I said several times that I was 15 years old, not 16, but he paid no attention to me.

Derry Township School District, Granada Avenue school complex. Hershey Junior-Senior High School in foreground. 1925

The need for a variety of town services became apparent shortly after the Hershey Chocolate factory began operating in the summer of 1905. Hershey Volunteer Fire Company, our community’s oldest service organization, was first organized in August 1905 with Frank Snavely serving as the first president and Charles V. Glynn as the first fire chief. The volunteers soon began responding to calls. The first call came in December 1905 to a fire at John Moyer’s Derry Church residence. The organization was officially chartered in 1907. At that time there were 73 members, including Milton Hershey. Throughout his life he was an advocate for the Fire Company and personally supported the organization with financial donations and by purchasing fire trucks and equipment.

Hershey Volunteer Fire Company, first fire hall. ca. 1906-1910

The first fire house was located on Chocolate Avenue, just west of the Chocolate factory. At first the organization was as much a social club as a service organization. As the town grew and new organizations started, the Fire Company focused more of its energy on providing the best possible service to the community. As the town grew and technology improved, the Fire Company needed to upgrade its fire fighting equipment. A new Packard pumper was purchased in 1921 and in 1926 a Selden Buffalo pumper was acquired. With the addition of this new equipment, the fire hall was too small for the Fire Company needs .

New Fire Hall on West Caracas Avenue, men posing with Selden and Packard pumpers. 1928

In 1927 Milton Hershey responded to the need for the new fire house by donating a piece of land on W. Caracas Avenue, just off Cocoa Avenue as well as $5000 towards construction costs. Work on the $15,000 building began on January 10, 1928. It was completed in June that same year. Formal dedication ceremonies for the station were held on June 23, 1928. The festivities began with a parade followed by the dedication ceremony. A evening dance and carnival concluded the day long celebration. Today this building is the center part of the current fire station.

  

 

Hershey Community Building, 1933

Originally planned for 1916 and finally constructed during Hershey’s Great Building Campaign of the 1930s, the goal of the building was to provide entertainment and recreation, as well as to fulfill educational and civic functions for the entire town. World War I and subsequent financial challenges for Hershey Chocolate Company delayed its construction.  Finally in November 1928 ground was broken.  The building was completed in September 1932 and officially dedicated in September 1933 as part of the Town’s 30th anniversary celebration.
 

The primary function of the Building’s recreational facilities was for the use of the Hershey Men’s Club.  The Men’s Club offered an extensive range of programs and activities for the boys and men of Hershey.  The facilities were very impressive.

Game Room: 180 feet long, contains four bowling alleys, a court for practicing driving golf ball or putting, three shuffleboard tables, four ping pong tables, five pocket billiard tables for men, one billiard table for boys, a table for curoque, and a section devoted to games for boys in addition to tables for cards, checkers, chess, etc.

Game Room, ca.1932-1942

On same floor is a swimming pool 75 feet long by 25 feet wide, 3 - 9 1/2  feet deep,  with three spring boards.  Separate showers for men and boys

 

 

 

 

Gymnasium:  (80 x 44 feet with 35 foot ceiling) for class work, volley ball, basketball, softball, badminton and special exercising rooms as well as two courts for four-wall hand ball, also can be used as squash courts.

 

 

Men's Club Junior Division, Community Building Gymnasium, ca.1935

The Archives oral history collections contain many memories of the Community Building and how important it was to the residents, particularly the children.  Many men shared memories of their childhoods spending afternoons and evenings at the Community Building:

 

Frank Simione (93OH02):

In the early years, from starting at my eighth birthday, we belonged to the Hershey Community Building, which at that time was called Community Club for us, where they had the Hershey hospital on the sixth floor, later became the Hershey Junior College. At eight years old, we belonged to this Community Building, where we learned all the athletic sports, all types of games. I think it was three dollars for six months, and you started as a cadet and went up to a junior, and then you went into intermediate, then you went into a senior program.

Spending all that time and all those years there, I learned many athletic games and as much as all the small games that you would play, like checkers and dominos and pool and ping-pong and bowling. We were fortunate to have this facility. At the time, we didn’t know any better, but as we grew, and later on in life, we found that that was a beautiful place for kids to go.

To learn more about the Archives’ oral history collections use this link to visit the Archives online collections database.

 

The Hershey Press issue dated September 17, 1909 carried a variety of articles about the community and Chocolate factory as well as printing ads from Hershey owned and independent businesses.

One of my favorite columns was titled: Hershey Briefs: Items About You, Your Neighbors and Things in General.  Illnesses, individual’s trips to Harrisburg and Lancaster, comments about people who dropped in to visit the Press office, parties, practical jokes, bowling competitions and related events were appropriate for this column.  It reminds me of today’s Facebook postings:  the information in the column varied in significance and interest.

The Hershey Press is also a great resource for documenting the growth and development of the community.  On the front page of this issue, the Press carried an article about the installation of a new pastor at Derry Presbyterian Church, one about the contents of a large freight train delivering materials to Hershey and an article noting the completion of a new addition to the Hershey Chocolate Factory for the Longitudinal department.  I found the article

 particularly helpful because this short article helped the Archives date this photograph of the new department:

Hershey Chocolate Factory, Longitudinal department, ca.1909

Hershey Press, 1909 original masthead

1909:  Hershey, with big plans for its future, was still a modest community of about 250 people.  While the chocolate factory employed several hundred people, most of the workers lived in the surrounding communities, using the Hershey trolley system to travel to work each day. Hershey Park was essentially a community park, the only ride a small, second-hand merry-go-round that had been installed next to the baseball field the preceding year. Housing construction was underway, but available housing was extremely limited. Milton and Catherine Hershey had just moved into their new home, High Point, the previous year.

Milton Hershey’s aspirations for the expanding community included a newspaper. On September 3, 1909, the first issue of The Hershey Press, a weekly paper, was printed. Published through 1926, with a brief interruption in 1917 during World War I, The Hershey Press promoted the community, encouraged readers to support causes and new ventures and documented the events of the community and its residents.

Periodically I’ll be posting excerpts from The Hershey Press, following the centennial of their original publication.

Some background:  The first issue of The Hershey Press was printed on Friday, September 3, 1909.  An annual subcription to the weekly paper cost $.75.  The first issue was 8 pages and covered a broad range of topics:  a review of recent events, a history of Derry Presbyterian Church, a report of the Hershey Family Reunion held at the Park, baseball scores, jokes, as well as advertisements (both Hershey owned businesses and other) and a map of the community.  The paper also introduced a column titled “Hershey Briefs” which offered updates on the activities of community residents and others, a precursor to today’s Facebook status entries.  This column was one of the newspapers most enduring parts of the paper.

Check back often to learn more about the activities of Hershey 100 years ago. 

P.S.  If you can’t wait, The Hershey Press can be viewed online through a link on the Archives’ website.

Hershey Estates vice president James E. Bobb leads a group of children at Hershey Elementary School dedication ceremonies, November 15, 1956.

Milton Hershey’s interest in and commitment to providing the town with quality public education led him to underwrite the cost of all the community’s public school buildings constructed in Hershey during his lifetime.  Continuing that tradition, in 1954 The M.S. Hershey Foundation presented the Derry Township School District with a new elementary school.  The new building initially served students in Kindergarten thru Grade 3.  In 1956, a 15 room addition was completed allowing the school to bring fourth and fifth grade students into the new building.  In addition to classrooms, the elementary school contained a cafeteria, all-purpose room, music rooms, speech corrections office, health room, and administrative offices.   In 1956 there were 1,104 students in the elementary school.  Dedication ceremonies and a community wide open house were held on November 15, 1956.  More than 2000 people toured the new school building. The elementary school would be the last public school building totally funded by the Hershey Entities.

To learn more about the history of public education in Hershey check the history of education exhibit on the Archives’ website.