Baker square history

Our History

In 1765, a Harvard-educated doctor named James Baker met an Irish immigrant and chocolate maker named John Hannon. With Baker’s money and Hannon’s knowledge, the two of them converted an old mill on the banks of the Neponset River into the first chocolate mill in America. In the mill, they ground cocoa beans between huge millstones to make a thick syrup. The chocolate syrup was poured into molds to make “cakes” of chocolate, meant to be grated and mixed with hot water to make a chocolate beverage. The cakes were sold under the name “Hannon’s Best Chocolate.” Hannon’s guarantee, printed on the wrapper, was “If the Chocolate does not prove good, the Money will be returned.”

The business was successful, and in 1768, the men moved their operation to a new, larger facility. In 1772, Baker opened a second mill, while Hannon continued to operate the older one. It was rumored that the two had begun having disagreements, but nobody knows for sure. When the American Revolution began, things grew difficult for the chocolatiers. Cocoa beans grew more expensive and, in addition, they had to be smuggled into the country so the British Navy wouldn’t confiscate them.

In 1779, John Hannon went on a voyage to the West Indies with the intention of purchasing cocoa beans, and disappeared. It is unknown whether he died on the trip or if he merely chose not to return. In 1780, after an amount of legal wrangling with Hannon’s widow, Baker gained full control of the company. Thereafter, it was known as “The Baker Company.” In 1783 the Revolution ended, and chocolate production returned to normal.

When James Baker stepped down from his position, he turned the company over to his son, Edmund. Edmund expanded the family business significantly, opening another chocolate mill as well as a gristmill and a cloth mill. During the War of 1812, when cocoa beans were again in short supply, it was the grain and the cloth that kept the family in business. During this time, in fact, the chocolate operation ceased completely for two years due to an inability to import cocoa. Once the war was over, Edmund tore down his original chocolate mill and built an even larger one.

In 1824, Edmund retired and let his son, Walter, take over the chocolate business. Walter was the last member of the Baker family to run the business, remaining at the helm until his death in 1852. By this time, there were four independent chocolate manufacturers in Lower Mills: the Baker, Preston, Ware, and Webb & Twombley Companies.

After Walter Baker’s death, Henry L. Pierce leased the chocolate mill and began to expand the company and its market. Over the next several years he bought out his local competitors and began marketing Baker’s chocolate nationwide. Pierce bought the interests of the Baker family in 1886 and continued to run the company until his death in 1896. That year the Forbes syndicate, led by Milton summer resident J. Murray Forbes, bought the company for $4.75 million and began a tremendous expansion of both the physical plant and the worldwide market for its chocolate. The company displayed its chocolate at national and international expositions and competitions. As a result of seeing the chocolate displays of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Milton Hershey of Lancaster, PA’s Lancaster Carmel Company hired two chocolate makers from Baker Chocolate and opened Hershey’s Chocolate in 1894.

Most of the buildings you see today throughout the Baker Chocolate Mill complex were built between 1902 and 1919, a time of tremendous expansion. In 1927 the Forbes Syndicate sold the company to the Postum Company, which later became General Foods Corporation. The factory remained open until 1966, when General Foods moved the company to Dover, Delaware and ended two hundred years of chocolate manufacturing in Lower Mills. Baker’s Chocolate is still made by Kraft Foods.

The Adams Street Bridge is located at the entrance of Baker Square Condominiums and also has historical importance. The first bridge was built slightly upstream by Israel Stoughton in 1634 in exchange for rights to build a grist mill and fish weir on the river. This was the first grist mill in New England. The first stone bridge was built in 1765 using massive granite “clapper spans” and a wood deck. These clapper spans are still in place beneath the current structure. The bridge was widened in 1847 and again in 1871, and in 1934 it was reconstructed with steel floor beams, concrete deck, and concrete encased girders.

The bridge was dedicated in 1986 to George J. Roper, a Lower Mills resident killed after parachuting into Germany during World War II. In 2002 the Massachusetts Highway Department planned to demolish and rebuild the entire bridge structure. Due to the bridge’s historic nature and important fish habitat in the river, the department built the more appropriate bridge restoration we see today.

The Neponset River, along the southern border of our property, is the dividing line between Boston and Milton. If you continue past the bridge you’ll see Milton Landing (est. 1640) on the left side of Adams Street. Notice the statue and commemorative plaque: “Near this spot were enacted on September 9, 1774 by about seventy patriots assembled at Daniel Voses Inn the Suffolk Resolves which carried by Paul Revere to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia became a powerful influence in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.”

Today, Forbes Mill, Park Mill, Baker Mill, Water Mill, and the Carriage House make up Baker Square Condominiums. The Walter Baker Administration building, to the left as you exit our driveway, houses City of Boston artists’ lofts. The Pierce Mill across Adams Street is now Baker Chocolate Apartments, and the Webb Mill to the right as you exit the driveway houses the Muscle & Flow Gym and other commercial offices. Our Lower Mills neighborhood is a great example of successful and practical historic preservation. In fact, the Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

For more detailed history, including old photographs, maps, and biographies, see www.bostonhistory.org/sub/bakerschocolate. If you are interested, even more history and interesting information, along with images, can be found in the book The Baker Chocolate Company: A Sweet History, by Anthony Sammarco, published by The History Press. Available on Amazon, Goodreads, and others.

(Attribution: the Baker Square Handbook)