now it's my pleasure to introduce today speaker anthony some marco a noted historian and author of over seventy books on local history and several have made the best sellers list including the jordan marsh book new england's largest store which he spoke about at our program in two thousand and seventeen as well as his book the baker chocolate company a sweet history which he will be presenting today mr some marco is employed at boston based paint he has taught at the urban college of boston since one thousand nine hundred and ninety seven where he was named educator of the year he also teaches the popular course boston history at the boston university metropolitan college he has received numerous awards and accolades included including being named dorchester town historian by former boston mayor raymond flynn he was elected a fellow of the massachusetts historical society and his past president of the bay state historical league just to name a few of his many accomplishments he is currently writing s s pierce a boston tradition and east boston through time i think he keeps himself quite busy he lives in boston and and we are delighted to have anthony back again so a warm welcome for anthony so it's always a pleasure to come here and say it's so easy to get to but it's always a welcoming crowd because i think in a lot of ways local history is something that shouldn't just be taught it should be experience so each one of us basically look at this as something that not we knew but our grandparents and sometimes even our great grandparents but how many here remember bakers trying to clit very good i think a lot of times the aroma basically was something that one would actually smell the moment one came to the door  it was something in some ways that many people realized was a delicious aroma but it was also something was the oldest manufacturer of chocolate in north america and seen here on the cover it shows a woman making what was devil's food f you'll see the whole picture later on along with pierce mill and a wonderful pavilion at the very top make us chocolate a sweet history was published by arcadia press it's a boston based now printing company that actually has done a history of every city town and village in the united states but what i've tried to do is to broaden that to do things on local history such as the baker chocolate company the history of how it johnson's the history of jordan marsh and now a book that i'm writing on it says pierce a lot of times each one of these are things that not only we remember but our grandparents and hopefully our grandchildren will learn well charcoal in a lot of ways is something that's a wonderful confection it's weak ritual and then that instance with two ripening zan in your ole it was not just a major feature but it was hoped the crop itself would be fruitful the mask is now in the collection of the museum of london but during the period of the and chalk a lot of as something that's totally different than the cocoa that we drink today it would be flavored with chili pepper over nyla and it was always enjoyed and i have to coconut shell with guilt ornaments that one would drink almost as a loving cup but in this period cortez would actually bring it back to spain and it would be part of the king of spain's granddaughters dowry for when she married louis the th of france they actually gave that as part of the diary and later the french would actually incorporate it with sugar and cream to become the cocoa that we know it today by one thousand seven hundred and twenty eight this print shows that chalk a lot of it was one of the drinks of choice in the world is a print that was done the chose three men from three different parts of the world on the left is a man from arabia he's drinking a cup of coffee in the very center as a man from china drinking a cup of tea and on the right is a toltec warrior labile out of the hoft coconut shell and in that instance you began to realise that coffee tea and chalk a lot of the slash cocoa had now become the drinks of choice during that period you realised in some actually to have to ripen things annually but there are twenty four dollars different varieties of theobroma cat kayo trees they grow as a dwarf like tree twelve to fifteen feet in height it's singular trunked but there were actually have ripening and people would descend upon the plantations to actually began knocking them from the tree as well as gathering them and this is a photograph from one thousand nine hundred in the distance you see the man holding the spears which actually have a little hole at the ends and they would actually break them off the trees and the people in the foreground both men and women would collect them and in that instance the beans them selves you can see here in the foreground were not only in a glutenous substance with a membrane but once it was broken open and separated they would then be put to air dry it didn't change from the th century right through to the th century and seen here in a wonderful stereo view the men in the foreground of breaking open that kept hale paws and the beans them selves allayed on the pallets so they can air and sun dry because of that proximity to the equator they usually dried within two weeks and they had a shelf life because the beans as a dried being could be used ten or twenty years from now with no adverse effects whatsoever well the aspect of chalk a lot of would translate itself into chocolate when it actually came to the new world and that was actually in dorchester lower mills this is a map of one thousand eight hundred and thirty one showing dorchester on the north side of the neponset river and milton village on the south side this area itself was landscaped in such a way that one would see that was baking chocolate but it was named for dr james baker and seen here this is his portrait it was done in the eighteen teens but he himself had been not only born in dorchester but he would actually be educated in the local schools he was graduated from harvard college and seven hundred and sixty dollars and studied for the ministry for two years but after not only the fact of studying for the ministry and refusing the hand of the minister of the dollar just a meeting house he kept school and of land but he was also somebody who owned a mill on the banks of the neponset river he fitted it up because he had met a man by the name of john hannan and according to the history of dorchester hannon was a quote pendulous irish immigrant unquote but he had the skill of making chocolate which he had learned in london and in that instance dr baker set him up in business in this mill using the water power forwarded by the wheel by the damming of the river to create the st chocolate in north america and in that instance it wasn't known as bakers but it was known as hannan's best chocolate well john hannan was a very astute man he may have been panelists but he knew how to make chocolate and between seven hundred and sixty five and seven hundred and seventy nine he made hannan's best chocolate that was not just a very good chocolate but it had an eighty five percent kale count which was a very pure chocolate but he also justice and of course it says if the chocolate does not prove good the money will be returned one of the st money back guarantee needs for a food product in the united states well during that period he did quite well and of course baker himself had invested in him and did as equally well but the idea was in seventy and seventy nine he went to the west indies to actually procure more care kayo beans he never returned and a year later the widow ha sold her half share of the business to dr james baker and the house of baker chocolate was incorporated during that period of time three general patients of the family would operate it there was not only dr james baker his son edmund baker but seen here his grandson walter baker and like his father and grandfather he too was graduated from harvard college he graduated in the class of one thousand eight hundred and eighteen dollars but he took a further year of study with judge it was actually operating out of a small mill but between that period and his death an eight hundred and fifty two dollars he would increase the company fifteen fold and during that period of time as a family business as it continued to expand primarily through his marketing and advertising skills he adopted a logo which was a young maiden with a cornucopia spewing forth all the different types of chocolates of i made there was premium chocolate as i mentioned eighty five percent they made cocoa but they also made a bromo and if you've ever heard of chocolate brahma i'm sure you've heard of bromo seltzer but the idea is the chocolate burma was an f of s and chocolate drink and when it was iced in the summer months was not only refreshing but quite delicious well this which was adopted in one thousand eight hundred and twenty four would be used right through to the eight hundred and seventy s but he also did broadsides and these were an important feature because bruno was something that was really quite a big sale chocolate of course was the major feature as well as cocoa bromo was something that not only tasted good but it was good for you and seen here that it says in the opinions of eminent physicians of boston that they themselves have tried walter baker's bramah and they can recommend it and the names of these physicians went the gamut from dr john warren who actually had done the st operation massachusetts general hospital with ether along with george hayward john i'm going blind john homans walter channing is that dale boylston adams and john where these were among the most impressive and important doctors of the period but they were also part of the class of eight hundred and eighteen dollars at harvard you also did this wonderful colored broadsides that's in the collection of the boston athan i am and it says that walter baker  company not only produced chocolate but cocoa bromo cocoa paste and homeopathic cocoa something that had less caffeine than any other coffee caffeine which was less than any other cocoa produced well he did extremely well and during this period of time you had to realize he was now employing anywhere from seventy five to one hundred people but in that instance he died quite young and in eight hundred and fifty to his son walter decided not to take over the reins of the company he was living in london at that time and walter baker's daughter florence was living in paris and was left to this man henry peers to actually take over the reins of the company an eight hundred and fifty four well henry louis pierce had been born and stoughton but the family lived in dorchester his father was an educator at milton academy of course henry pierce had attended the academy and later the bridgewater normal school but he was always said to be quote delicate unquote and he worked for a step anchal as a counting clerk at a one dollar fifty cents a week even an eight hundred and fifty two dollars that was not a great sum of money but this was a man who had pretensions in some ways to actually creating the clark would eventually die leaving seventy one million dollars during that period of time you had to realize that this is a man who actually worked not only to create the baker chocolate name but also to create what became the urban mill village of the baker chocolate and seen here in a photograph and this is eight hundred and seventy two you begin to realize that the building on the far left is what he inherited that had been built in one thousand nine hundred and eighty nine by walter baker to replace the original mill that was burnt but the bill in the distance which is the pierce mill that will discuss was the st building that he actually built and named for the pierce family in the foreground was the neponset river still important feature of the urban and commercial development of this area but henry pierce was somebody in a lot of ways that took the company to a next step and over the next forty years would increase the company forty fold he actually commissioned an architect to actually build the st of what would eventually be eleven mills that was nothing and you'll bradley bradley was one of the most important one thousand century architects in boston if you know boston south and you might know the row houses the red bricks well bay facade housing the chair a uniformity of height sat back and material well nothing in your bradley design that and it became known as the extent eleven mills and during that period nothing new bradley created the st building one of the most impressive which still stands as apartments this is a building when it was completed eight two and dorchester that showed how what the once town which had recently been an ax to boston was to see urban development a building built of red brick in a fashionable nd french empire style that would actually town into what became an urban developed neighborhood of the city of boston well this was a trade that was down the chode street traffic in the foreground but a mill that was one of the most important and creative the prototype of the various buildings but there was also the aspect that this area with the a roamer of chocolate was known as chocolate village in the th century bakers may have been the oldest manufacturer of chocolate in the united states but they weren't the only manufacturer but if you can imagine there were four manufacturers of chocolate on the door trust a lower mills there was not just bakers of seven hundred and sixty five there was preston's chocolate of seven hundred and eighty nine doctor whereas chocolate of eight hundred and forty three and weapon twamley later known just as the web chocolate company and the surprising thing was the heavy a rumor of chocolate must have been intoxicating but henry pierce bought out his former competitors and combine them into his business and magnanimously name the new mills after his former competitors companies here in the foreground is the webmail named after the former webb and twamley mill on the milton side of the neponset river at the corner of adams and elliott strait and today has not just offices but also lots of shops on the st floor when beginning to realize that this was a place that would actually have by the turn of the th century here leaving at what was called the noon hour they would take a lunch hour many of them would walk to the various lunch counters that with throughout the area both on the milton endorse just the sides of the river but you had to realize that these mills themselves would actually have a six thousand and forty ratio sixty percent men forty percent women and it really did go the gamut because many of these people had specific jobs many of the women with professors some would actually wrap chocolate in paper or fill cocoa ten's but the surprising thing was many of these women who did work for walter baker and company actually kept their jobs for decades there was one woman mouth upon to work for the company for forty eight years she was the keeper of the secrets because as i mentioned earlier the theobroma cat came the tree had twenty four dollars distinct varieties each chocolate having a different flavor so if one was making a vanilla chocolate or caracas sweet chocolate or even the premium it would be she who would know exactly the measurements and she kept her secret because she was a deaf mute and she could probably be an employe else but she worked for forty eight years with walter baker and then that way you began to realize that people lived in the area of not just milton village but also the daughter just the lower mills in and around this one industry one of upwards of seventy five industries along the neponset river was seen here in the center it was called pier square in on are of henry lolis pierce he would serve as mayor of boston and eight hundred and seventy two  eighty seven cents as well as a united states congressman from eight hundred and eighty three two thousand eight hundred and eighty five but in this instance the pinkish red buildings and i hope that pinkish red i'm colorblind would actually show on the right hand side the baker mill the pierce mill of course the preston mill and the where mill and on the left hand side the forbes mill and of course the baker mill you realize in some ways that this was something that was actually producing not just chocolate but it was also a major part of the economy of this neighborhood many people were employed there and it went the gamut of people of ages not just as teenagers but even up to senior citizens well henry peers continue the tradition of walter baker and he made fine chocolates so much so that by the turn of the th century they were twenty one distinct from righties of chocolate but the major chocolate was produce was premium number one premium number one as i mentioned was eighty five percent cac a zero would be wrapped in paper and that would be a cream label of fix saying not only the quality of the chocolate but it was the best they produced they also produced things such as german sweet still available in supermarkets today but this was named for a man named samuel german he was not germany was english but he came to this country to be wall to baker's coachman and after driving him around boston because baker the sweet chocolate became the st readily edible chocolate that baker's made not only did walter baker name it after samuel german but he paid him a one thousand dollars to use the name ironically that was ten times as annual salary so in a lot of ways we had premium number one german sweet chocolate vanilla chocolate something very different but does anybody like vanilla or a white chocolate here did your mother of a tell you it was more fattening than any of the chocolate available well it was and there's no chocolate in it vanilla chocolate was the cocoa butter and when cocoa butter was extracted in the process it would actually be discarded of the th century in the th century it was used for cosmetics vanilla chocolate was something that was white and it would be combined with sugar vanilla and a little bit of flour and it would be something that was really quite mellow and delicious could also be made into v cocoa so it was something that was really quite delicious and says the smooth delicacy in flavor good to eat and good to drink i like it myself they also made caracas sweet chocolate meaning that the beans came from venezuela remember anywhere from twenty miles north of south of the equator one would actually see the beans coming to dorchester and in a lot of ways each of these chocolates were wonderful but the whole concept was fifty percent of the average annual sales was in baker cocoa and cocoa was something that was not just delicious but it was to do that if you couldn't have a full breakfast it was one of the most delicious as well as nutritious drinks you could have well cocoa was a major feature and of course baker has by the latter part of the th century would begin to offer premiums so that you could collect them and then send off for a cocoa pot or even a cup and saucer and in some ways people looked at that as a great feature but the beans with the intercooler parts and they were acquired from not only central america south america the west indies the caribbean as well as africa and you saw the coming to dorchester and these men know sorting the beans this was the basement of the pierce mill photograph of one thousand nine hundred they would actually label in a stansell country of origin and date either on the boxes or canvas sacks and as i mentioned because they were dried they had to show fly from anywhere from ten to twenty years but when the chocolate was ready to be made remember a pond she would then give the recipe for making of whatever the specific chocolate was well henry pierce would actually import all sorts of european machinery to manufacture chocolate henry pierce between eight hundred and fifty four dollars and his death when abroad every single year and he didn't travel to just look at art and absorb culture he went to visit manufacturers of chocolate england and france and germany switzerland even in russia and what he did was here send back to do it shuster not only to series but fooling machines that made the production of chocolate not only more efficient but really quite quick if you look at the top of the conveyor belt the dried beans are brought into the river to seri they'd be roasted and then brought down to a fulling machine where the shell of the bean itself is removed and at that point looking on the left hand side of the photograph you see the men wearing leather apron is to protect their clothing at this point the slab like fudge like chocolate had a fifty percent butter fact hound and it would air and sun dry at that point it would then be refined and by refining it through a cancian process it would actually be graded for a seven days at twenty four hours a day and during that period it was one of the most important features because it removed the butterfat here the men would actually work in the various mills because each one would produce a specific chocolate but what they did was to eventually make a chocolate that would then be wrapped in these a chocolate wrappers and then of course affixed with not only a paper wrapping but a label well these women would actually have their own workstations and they would wrap dozens of chocolate bars on a daily basis and of course once they filled the box that we were brought to shipping the women on the other hand here would actually fill cocoa ten and these cocoa tunes are an important feature because as i mentioned cocoa is fifty percent of the average annual sales again they would fill a box and it would be brought to shipping and the shipping docks themselves are an important way to distribute not only the chocolate but the cocoa during the months of july and august chocolate was suspended and the manufacturer if you know chocolate melts supposed to melt in your hand not in your mouth but in this instance it was something that many people realize that it was a good thing to shut it down but the carriages in the foreground would actually have horses with top ilands they would distribute them throughout the area locally but if you look on the left hand side there was a railroad spur this was the drop chester  milton branch of the old colony railroad it was a passenger railroad that connected neal and st in boston and mattapan but the concept here was there was a spur for baker's chocolate and they would bring their chocolate  would actually be distributed through south station south of boston or north station north of boston and in that way chocolate wasn't just known throughout boston but all of the eastern seaboard and it became quite well known the wonderful broadsides continued and this is a broadside i donated all of my collection to the university of massachusetts archive in special collection which now can be used by anyone five days away but this was enormous it was four feet by two feet and it showed that wall to baker made of course american and vanilla chocolates and dates to eight hundred and forty nine these are important because they were sent out to all sorts of shops throughout the united states where they would then sell the chocolate and during that period even bakers chocolate would take it one step further to produce what were basically recipe books as early as eight hundred and fifty dollars they made a chocolat receipt book which was twelve pages and if you fall of the directions perfectly you too could make fudge or cocoa or even something a little more elaborate to impress family and friends but this is the cover to the  just of the topsfield in marshfield fares but in european competitions against english french and german and swiss produces of chocolate and he won gold silver and bronze medals for the quality his product and in that instance these cookbooks and this was one hundred pages was something that not only showed people how the make all sorts of different fudge is that when the gamut from as well as of course things that could impress anyone such as bombay or anything sort of wonderful desserts but they were an important feature and given free for the asking henry pierce of this time also adopted as his that point the portrait was given to the gallery ultimo which still survives and of course it was there that henry pierce saren of one of his trips to germany he had a copy made and when it came to dorchester he called it la belle chocolatey air and in that instance it became his registered trademark in one thousand nine hundred and three an important feature because it was used not just to stamp the boxes of chocolate and cocoa but it was even used on cocoa sets well this is a cocoa set we have it's in our cellar i don't know where it is but this is something that was produced by mice and it dates to about eight hundred and eighty they also had shelley in england made bone china there was l france that made a fine china and of course meissen well these were things that if you saved up your coupons you could actually trade them for something such as this and it was purported to be the best cocoa when the world's so why not stir it with a silver spoon so because charcoal in this instance was using not only their advertisements but they were also using a small coupon that was on the bottom of every wrapping of chocolate and cocoa ten that if you collect enough you could even have your own bison cocoa service or join that period henry pierce spent over six hundred thousand dollars a year just on advertising advertising was a major feature but in eight million six hundred thousand dollars was a tremendous some of money a well to do family could live on four thousand dollars a year so in that instance he would actually go to these exhibitions as i mentioned as early as eight hundred and fifty four and he would build a pavilion well this was the chicago's exhibition exposition of eight hundred and ninety three it was called the white city it was one of the major features and he built this pavilion it wasn't just any pavilion it was designed by kerry and hastings and it cost sixty thousand dollars to build which was a huge sum of money for a building only meant to survive six months one would ascend a staircase in either side and then come into a large room and then that room would be demonstrators and these women would set up displays the b bars of chocolate tins of cocoa and apothecary jobs filled with chocolate bon bons made from the cookbooks and in that way many people began to come to not just see the white city in chicago but also the baker chocolate they would actually have women making chocolate cakes and this woman holding a drop just a pottery bowl had made a devil's food frosting for a chocolate cake and in that instance you might watch her but when she caught it you chew could then taste how delicious baker's chocolate really was well it wasn't just a woman making a chocolate cake and it wasn't just the displays but in the four corners of the room were desks and on every desk was a postcard of la belle chocolate air that was pre stamped and you could write home to family and friends and say i just tasted ba stockleigh cocoa so too shouldn't you and that word of mouth made bakers no not just locally but in chicago the midwest and even the west coast well these exhibitions starting in chicago continued every year seen here and williamsburg virginia the building of the basement was actually done by edwin lewis for the one thousand nine hundred and seven exhibition it was a colonial homestead charming but they actually tried to save money so after the six month period it was brought back to milton and reracked and where it still stands as a private residence but they also had as you see here san francisco in one thousand nine hundred and fifteen this was somewhat of a more of a palace and if you look in the center says minaret with cocoa and electric lights but look at the elephant heads on either side of the pavilions and in the very center to baker chocolate demonstrators wait to greet the public free chocolate free cocoa and a postcard that you could send home to family and friends great advertising tremendous expense but it was something that made people realize how important that was but they even did things as i mentioned at the top marshfield fair and seen here this little pavilion with canvas on ngs shows that walter baker and company served cocoa and chocolate both men and women free of charge to anybody that came up to the booth  years of age they acted as a demonstrator in the center she holds a one pound tin of cocoa on the left as a woman with a tray embossed with the baker chocolate decals and on the right a woman holding a shell a china bone and saucer with labelle chocolates here and profile this is a major feature in that way henry pierce continued the recipe books seen here as choice receipts continued to become more elaborate they were published right through to the one thousand nine hundred and sixty s but this was something with one hundred pages that would show you not just how to make fudge but cakes and all sorts of elaborate things but in these cookbooks was also an article that was written by a woman named ellen richard swallow so nobody ever heard of ellen richards ellen riches is a fascinating woman she was graduated from vassar in the eight hundred and seven dollars days and she became the  experimental student at the massachusetts institute of technology she was experimental because she was a woman they didn't think that a woman could actually get a master's in chemistry or biology and she actually went there for two years and eventually married her professor professor richards but she was somebody in a lot of ways who had come from a very well to do family but was naturally brilliant during the period of the eight hundred and eighty s and early eight days she began to write for the baker chocolate cookbooks about the nutritional quality of bakers chocolate it was wonderful but she was also somebody that gave back to the community they never had children during th period of the eight hundred and eight is the one thousand nine hundred and ninety she began to found what were called the new england soup kitchens these were actually places in the north and the south and in the west end of boston and she would teach immigrant women to make highly nutritious but low cost soups stews and breads and because this was something that actually would be self sufficient and eventually run itself it provided food for people returning home in the evening from the factory joining that period she also became a woman who tested boston's water throughout the eight hundred and ninety s in the early part of the th century so she didn't just extol the virtues of chocolate which makes me lover all the more but she was somebody in a lot of ways that gave back to the community in a lot of ways at the turn of the century bakers was on the cutting edge of chocolate and one of the things that they did was to compete against the competitors such as nestle's and hershey's to make everyone realize that all chocolate was good but none of them could compete with the age of baker's chalk remember they were founded in one thousand seven hundred and eighty when they decided to print a calendar and the it says my lady drinks her st cup of walter baker and company's cocoa and it says that the house of walter baker and company was founded in the year seven hundred and eighty indoor tranced or so woman of the young republic martha washington looks down from the wall king charles spaniel looks up out us and she drinks her cocoa from an export paulson cup and saucer well twenty years later of the next generation the fame of baker's cocoa grows with that of the young republic and it says that pure cocoa acts as a gentle stimulant and invigorate same carex the action of digestive organs it wasn't just delicious but it was good for you and in eight hundred and twenty to speed the parting guest walter now recommend because chocolate as a beneficence restore of exhaustive power and but get this perfect food preserves health prolonging life and sue's both stomach and brain and i don't know if it's a fashion statement but the woman has a ribbon around her head and she's being served chocolate out of a poor class by the spoonful in an eight hundred and sixty it's the fashion to take a cup of baker's chocolate after a constitutional and it says that people who make constant use of chocolate of the ones who enjoy the most steady health and are the least subject to a multitude of ailments that destroy the comfort of life and in one thousand and eight dollars labelle chocolatey and i went as millions of homes as the trademark of the finest cocoa and chocolate in the world and it says that a booklet of choice receipts will be sent free of jocz but the concept was if labelle chocolatier continued to eat the chocolate and drink the cocoa she was going to keep this hourglass figure much longer but she was the th generation descendant of la belle chocolatey heir and walter baker and company uses for political purposes to make people realize not only had they been in business but they have the longest in business and their chocolate deserved to be tasted well in a lot of ways henry pierce him self as i mentioned an increase the company forty fold he was extraordinary only wealthy and very unassuming and someone who was quite generous when he died in one thousand nine hundred and six as i mentioned he left seventy one million dollars today it would be the equivalent of over nine hundred thousand dollars he had actually built a company that not only had new mills but also a workforce of close to three thousand six hundred dollars people but the surprising thing was he never married and he did have a brother edward lowly parents that lived in milton a well known attorney who had been educated to both brown and the harvard law school which he left trust funds to all of his seven children and they still live on it today the concept was that he also left money to charities in boston and he left the la legacies at that time of a one million dollars apiece to harvard university the massachusetts institute of technology combined philanthropies which was a nonsectarian group the homeopathic hospital which is now part of the medical center and the museum of fine arts each of them at a one million dollars had an income of close to one hundred thousand dollars which is a tremendous some of money but the most magnanimous thing he did was to leave to every employee whether it was at his factory or his home or his the state known as punk upon which was partly in milton and partly in cabin a one thousand years for every year of service the average year of ratio was forty years and the idea was that these employees earned forty thousand dollars tremendous sum of money when a house at that time might sell for five one thousand dollars and that way his company but they use the advertising in nationwide magazines to make the company extremely well known they used st nicholas magazine callie is look life as well as the youth's companion with full page color avatar has been so they targeted every aspect of society and here of this blog blue eyed child says now i have my dolly pretty soon i'll have my coco well if she wanted baker's cocoa i mean i wouldn't deny there but children loved it so too didn't fraternity men they were drinking beer in their dormitories one of their sisters arrives unannounced and sets up a cocoa ten where she then serves cocoa to her brother and of course his fraternity friends it's a center of attraction a perfect food and in that instance children and fraternity men love it but even in world war one the doughboys in france weren't drinking french wine here some where the boys are drinking a baker's cocoa toast to mothers fathers wives or sweethearts so in the aspect of american society it touched on every gamut even theatre actresses still removed dollars after a strenuous night on the stage they said there was nothing as more delicious or stimulating as a cup of baker's cocoa so in that instance they were well known and the forbes syndicate continued that advertising and marketing that was so successful but they even brought in mythological figures and little red riding hood now approaches grandmother's house with of course a basket of bakers cocoa and chocolates because she can come to my house any time well by nine hundred and nineteen dollars the company had expanded tremendously and they were actually grossing over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year the last of the buildings to be built was the administration building and this was not designed by bradley winslow and whether all this is designed by george he was a milton resident he designed the women's club in various schools he was a very well known man and a principal at shop and stearns but this building was something that would remove the offices from downtown boston to dorchester and it was not just elegant but it was something that was she them white marble on the interior but it was also a place that had a baker's chocolate museum and one of the things that they did was whenever there was an honored guest or guests the women would dress as labelle chocolatey or come to life and greet them at the top of the staircase they hold trays of cocoa and of course also it's of plates of different brownies and cookies made from the recipe book but in the distance one sees a six foot tall portrait of la belle chocolate chair by norman price a very well known architect who was the mentor of norman rockwell it still stands there now looking here at the top of the staircase this was a place that was really quite elegant and you had to realize that the forbes syndicate was investing again in a new building not only did the president have his offices here but all of the administrative offices and the small museum and during that period of time they had done quite well and fifteen fellow would increase but in one thousand nine hundred and twenty seven the ford syndicate decided to sell the business and they sold it to postum corporation postum is today known as general foods and this became known as the baker division of general foods and you had to realize postum was something that was well known as a cereal company so when they bought the baker chocolate factory they would buy into a chocolate concern and you can see here from a hot air balloon all of the buildings congregated around the river well during that period of time immediately they began to make readily edible chocolates and he seen here in the center and on the left is cocoa and of course premium chocolate but the company also began to make bars of milk chocolate and of course sweet chocolate tablets now these sweet chocolate tablets with circular discs of milk chocolate covered in a candy and if they sound like an eminem they weren't eminem but they were never copyrighted so today we might be eating a handful of sweet chocolate talbot's instead of m and m's during that period they began to advertise in such ways as not only cocoa but it says school is more fun after a baker's cocoa breakfast smiling children and of course in the foreground not only cocoa but of course a cocoa tin and during that period they also made wonderful chocolate cakes chocolate makes it good but bakers makes it best jury in this period of time the baker division of general foods continued to increase only fifteen percent for the fall of syndicate but within ten years they were up to twenty percent in just ten years and twenty fold was something that actually of the post who owned it they also produce large masses of chocolate and these were twenty five power bars just enough for the weekend and in this instance they were primarily for confectionery shops people would melt it in the neck can dip chocolates but they also began to actually make chocolate chips and this man is calibrating the size of the chip whether it's a large one or a mini but in that instance whether it was a twenty five pound bar or a chocolate chip it was baker's chocolate the best available and in this way they also did these wonderful conveyor belts the women wear new uniforms they're right on drip dry they're no longer tens of cocoa but cardboard containers and these women would fill them and as they went along the conveyor belt put them into baskets well this was feature and it was something that actually had a woman who would actually win an award there's azana crocker she filled cocoa tins faster but anyone in the history of baker's chocolate and she's showing curtis gag or then president of the baker division of general foods how she did it when she worked at baker's chocolate for forty years her husband worked there for fifty years and curtis gagner was somebody who was also quite well known curtis gallagher attended harvard university and later got a master's  eight bab's or eight ounces of chocolate allow us to break them off easily that was what he invented she may have been the fastest filler of cocoa tins in the history of bakers chocolate but curtis gagner created something that now fifty years later we're still using and in that way each one of them did something that made jobs easier for everyone and that was a major feature during the drop just a day celebrations the baker chocolate girls would come out and they'd sell tickets that you two with a raffle ticket might win this convertible that was given for a car and that way not only was baker's an important feature but they funded this and it was something that everybody seemed to by a woman in texas who made this wonderful cake in that instance you began to realize in some ways whether you were using german sweet chocolate premium number one or even the cocoa bakers was well kno and of course bakers continued to expand on their cocoa would eventually have this the new bakers four dollars and one dollar which is more chocolatey it mixes faster hot or cold instant cocoa was something that allowed instant pleasure in that way bakers division of general foods was something that expanded and during that period of time they would remain in dorchester until one thousand nine hundred and sixty six they moved the industry to dover delaware one story buildings that were climate controlled with air conditioning and the buildings remained fairly vacant except for a few buildings that had travel agencies and furniture companies today the historic low mills has the eleven buildings restore and they go the gamut from luxury condominiums luxury apartments medium priced apartments subsidized apartments handicapped and artists lives with one thousand one hundred people living where one thousand eight hundred people once worked it's a wonderful aspect of preserving a mill village within the city of boston well in this book the baker chocolate company of sweet history i tried to actually chronicle not just the early history but something that each one of us participated in whether we enjoyed a cocoa cup or even a brownie that something of our grandmother or great grandmother had made farce in that way it wasn't just the oldest manufacturer of chocolate the united states it was a delicious memory from the past thank you i hope you enjoyed it