Tasteful Friends: Chocolate Robber Baron Milton Hershey’s Mansion Opens for Rare Public Tours! What say you?

Here’s the link to the slide show:

Carbs are slave foods.

This is like making Tara into a theme park.

High Point + Hershey? Talk about FLAVAH!

Interesting. I only visited Hershey once as s child and it's more or less as I recall.

The curious thing is that it is big, but very middle class, the sort of house you find on the edge of any Eastern U.S. town that had a bit of prosperity in the early 20thC - the home of a judge, or owner of a fruit canning factory, where all the children went away to school and toured Europe and landed permanently in big cities.

The surprise of the place comes inside where the entry hall serves as a complex circulatory system and gets all the attention. It is showy, especially with the fine domed skylight, but in a somewhat commercial (maybe not unsurprisingly.) At it's heart it's like a fancy middle class emporium for ostrich plumed hats for Edwardian ladies; but except when looking straight up, the rest is a bit ordinary, only bigger. I've seen some of this architect's work in Lancaster and it's been both quieter and much more sophisticated. It seems he might have had some success in bridging proper entrances off the circular core of the hall, and that's something of a trick. I suspect he had some quite specific requests of Hershey to execute, so I'll place the shortcomings on the client more than the architect.

More photos might make me more or less charitable.

We took the Hershey Highway to get there.

Milton Hershey's father was a bibliophile, while his mother was not. "Sadly, when his father died in 1904, one of the first thing that [Hershey's] mom does is burn his father's library,"

Uh huh. We know what this collection was.

Meh.

A little heavy on the chocolate brown, don't you think?

Hahaha OP, *I* see what you did there

"Nestled in the company town..."

Looks like an old funeral home. Pass.

But the house lacks white cabinets, quartz countertops, and an open concept. How could one live there with these design failures? We must have Joanna Gaines or Christina Anstead provide their services.

Its OK.

It’s an interesting period home. As R4 noted, it is very Edwardian upper middle class.

R4? Marry me now.

OP, Mansion or no mansion, I don't think DL is the demographic for your topic. Here is a pic I found of those most likely to visit.

Just an observation! And thanks, new travel suggestions can be interesting. Not always, though.

Don't forget the trashy "Live, Laugh, Love" signs hanging on every fucking wall, R11. No house is complete without them.

Thank, R14, but good luck finding a keen architectural observer not already married off. The demand for that sort of thing is huge. Also I live far, far away from Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Like all things named High Point, I LAHV IT! Need extra calories? I have enough, thank you. But for chocolate lahvers, this mansion is a chocolate lahvers dream! This Hershey's High Point has extra FLAVAH! I approve!

Oh, fuck, I missed R3. My apologies.

I'm disappointed because it's exactly what I expected,

Scat heaven

Its very nice. A little dark and the sculptures are ... interesting.

No prob, R18/19; we can never have enough Betty-for-High-Point!

This is interesting, much of what I’ve heard before, but a better scientific explanation.

As back passages go, I love the Hershey hallway!

For a man whose name was imprinted LARGE on a product that nearly every American hand held at one point or another, he had awfully Middle Class taste.

Love Lives Here

[quote] stainglass

There is no such word, but, annoyingly, there is a street in Plano Texas with that name..

Stainglass is what I call my special coffee table.

The stained glass is nice but it gets to be overkill. The exterior doesn't seem to know what style it wanted to be.

Is there a discount for fudgepackers?

Do you get to see the sex dungeon on the tour?

Don't even bother. Instead visit the home of Former President James Buchanan who was the first gay President, the only President from Pennsylvania and who historians consistently rank as the worst president ever.

Which reminds me of George Eastman's mansion in Rochester, designed by McKim, Mead & White and now a museum of photography what else.

[quote]who historians consistently rank as the worst president ever

Not anymore, R33.

I think its surprisingly pretty for its era . Some parts are heavy and dark,but many are airy and pretty .

You have to admit... Hershey's family have all those "lovely Billions& Billions of dollars" hidden away for years. And this is the family "Money not in the trusts"

There are no Hershey heirs: Milton Hershey had no children. He left almost everything to that school and his charitable foundation.

His factory workers were HOT

^ Years ago someone here posted that his orphan school was infested with pederast teachers

My family took us on a road trip to Hershey Park back in the 80's, it was a lot of fun. What was also interesting though is that all the street lights near the park have Hershey Kisses shaped covers over them.

To (R-38) Years ago, my 1st boss at Goldman Sachs(early 90's) did business with the Hershey Trust. While their are no direct heirs from Milton Hershey, there are Hershey heirs that work for the Trust(and school) Irving is gonna get back to me with more information. Irving is one of the few men ion Wall Street I trusted and still do!!

Christ, the school is spending $139,000.00 a year educating its pupils, yeah I think there’s something wrong there.

I’ll have to stop sometime as my hubby goes to the Hershey and Carlisle car shows. The house is a fairly typical center hall home of the era until you get inside. It is nicely done, but far less ostentatious than those homes of other industrialists. As some above point out there is a certain middle class ethos here, but it shows most in the furnishings, some of which I know are not original. The foyer and staircase beg for a lighter color.

R42 I think folks are confusing the now non-existent Hershey family with the still very-existent and very wealthy Reese family, which was close to Hershey and gained a big stake in the company when Reese's Pieces merged with it. The Reese family has indeed been imvolved with the school and the trust.

This is a stunning house, not quite perfect but not far from it. Love the interior, and the exterior.

If I had the sort of money to do a no holds barred new build somewhere really nice I would build something very much like this

Reese's Pieces did not exist when the two companies merged in 1963.

The exterior is rather ugly---a real mishmash of styles. The entry does seem kindof commercial like a mansion converted to law offices or a funeral home. It's a bit dark and gloomy.

I would love to take a trip on the Hershey Highway.

A lot of people think the Reese's company is actually called Reese's Pieces Company, I've noticed. Not sure where it comes from but it's common enough that I don't do a double take when I hear it.

It's actually The H.B. Reese Candy Company and it's a subsidiary of Hershey Chocolate Corp. now, I believe.