Hershey's First Candy Store

The chocolate empire that made Milton Hershey one of the most recognizable names in American food history began right here in Philadelphia. On June first, eighteen seventy-six, an eighteen-year-old Hershey opened his first confectionery shop at nine thirty-five Spring Garden Street, selling candies, nuts, and baked goods. The shop found early customers but credit problems forced it to close.

Hershey did not give up. He moved to Lancaster and in eighteen eighty-six launched the Lancaster Caramel Company, which became a major success. He sold that company in nineteen hundred for one million dollars and plowed the proceeds into a single obsession: milk chocolate.

The Hershey Chocolate Company that grew from that bet would eventually make this Philadelphia address the humble starting line of one of the world's most recognized candy brands.