Nestled in the company town he built from the riches he made off of his candy empire, the mansion was built in1908 designed by a local Lancaster county architect. Currently headquarters for the foundation, the rarely accessible house has opened for tours last month and this month, sold out and now are expanding to more slots. There’s a link to an earlier slide show of the interiors inside. I’m not enamored of the exterior except for the stone work, but the stainglass and wall treatments look exceptional. Especially, the aesthetic movement styled Ivanhoe murals from the billiards room.
Tasteful Friends: Chocolate Robber Baron Milton Hershey’s Mansion Opens for Rare Public Tours! What say you?
by Anonymous | reply 50 | April 17, 2021 3:40 PM |
Carbs are slave foods.
This is like making Tara into a theme park.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 5, 2020 3:21 PM |
High Point + Hershey? Talk about FLAVAH!
by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 5, 2020 3:37 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | December 5, 2020 3:43 PM |
We took the Hershey Highway to get there.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | December 5, 2020 3:45 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | December 5, 2020 3:54 PM |
Meh.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | December 5, 2020 3:56 PM |
A little heavy on the chocolate brown, don't you think?
by Anonymous | reply 8 | December 5, 2020 4:12 PM |
Hahaha OP, *I* see what you did there
"Nestled in the company town..."
by Anonymous | reply 9 | December 5, 2020 5:43 PM |
Looks like an old funeral home. Pass.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | December 5, 2020 5:56 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 5, 2020 6:43 PM |
Its OK.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | December 5, 2020 6:48 PM |
It’s an interesting period home. As R4 noted, it is very Edwardian upper middle class.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | December 5, 2020 7:02 PM |
R4? Marry me now.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 5, 2020 7:03 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 5, 2020 7:19 PM |
Don't forget the trashy "Live, Laugh, Love" signs hanging on every fucking wall, R11. No house is complete without them.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | December 5, 2020 7:41 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | December 5, 2020 7:46 PM |
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!
by Anonymous | reply 18 | December 5, 2020 7:55 PM |
Oh, fuck, I missed R3. My apologies.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | December 5, 2020 7:56 PM |
I'm disappointed because it's exactly what I expected,
by Anonymous | reply 20 | December 5, 2020 8:02 PM |
Scat heaven
by Anonymous | reply 21 | December 5, 2020 8:06 PM |
Its very nice. A little dark and the sculptures are ... interesting.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | December 5, 2020 9:00 PM |
No prob, R18/19; we can never have enough Betty-for-High-Point!
by Anonymous | reply 23 | December 5, 2020 9:10 PM |
This is interesting, much of what I’ve heard before, but a better scientific explanation.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | March 22, 2021 7:00 PM |
As back passages go, I love the Hershey hallway!
by Anonymous | reply 25 | March 22, 2021 7:02 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | March 22, 2021 7:37 PM |
Love Lives Here
by Anonymous | reply 27 | March 22, 2021 10:35 PM |
[quote] stainglass
There is no such word, but, annoyingly, there is a street in Plano Texas with that name..
by Anonymous | reply 28 | March 22, 2021 10:37 PM |
Stainglass is what I call my special coffee table.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | March 22, 2021 10:41 PM |
The stained glass is nice but it gets to be overkill. The exterior doesn't seem to know what style it wanted to be.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | March 22, 2021 11:13 PM |
Is there a discount for fudgepackers?
by Anonymous | reply 31 | March 23, 2021 1:49 AM |
Do you get to see the sex dungeon on the tour?
by Anonymous | reply 32 | March 23, 2021 1:54 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | March 23, 2021 3:31 AM |
Which reminds me of George Eastman's mansion in Rochester, designed by McKim, Mead & White and now a museum of photography what else.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | March 23, 2021 6:04 AM |
[quote]who historians consistently rank as the worst president ever
Not anymore, R33.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | March 23, 2021 5:49 PM |
I think its surprisingly pretty for its era . Some parts are heavy and dark,but many are airy and pretty .
by Anonymous | reply 36 | March 23, 2021 6:16 PM |
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"
by Anonymous | reply 37 | March 23, 2021 7:10 PM |
There are no Hershey heirs: Milton Hershey had no children. He left almost everything to that school and his charitable foundation.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | March 24, 2021 1:35 AM |
^ Years ago someone here posted that his orphan school was infested with pederast teachers
by Anonymous | reply 40 | March 24, 2021 2:05 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | March 24, 2021 3:25 PM |
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!!
by Anonymous | reply 42 | March 24, 2021 8:49 PM |
Christ, the school is spending $139,000.00 a year educating its pupils, yeah I think there’s something wrong there.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | April 17, 2021 8:29 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 17, 2021 9:04 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | April 17, 2021 9:16 AM |
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
by Anonymous | reply 46 | April 17, 2021 3:19 PM |
Reese's Pieces did not exist when the two companies merged in 1963.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | April 17, 2021 3:28 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | April 17, 2021 3:35 PM |
I would love to take a trip on the Hershey Highway.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | April 17, 2021 3:36 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | April 17, 2021 3:40 PM |