Shrewsbury
Historical Society
Established 1898
Mario - Fats - Caruso
1928 - 1993
Mario - Fats - Caruso
1928 - 1993
Hebert Candies
Frederick Edmund Hebert started his candy business in his garage in 1917 after purchasing a copper kettle, knife, thermometer, table, marble slab, and stone for a total of $11. He and his sons Gerald and Raymond would eventually open nine retail stores in New England and ship candy around the world. [1]
For three decades, Frederick handcrafted his chocolates and caramels, selling his candies in neighborhood stores in Central Massachusetts. As the demand grew he needed to expand his operations. [2] In 1946, Mr. Hebert purchased a Tudor stone mansion on Route 20 in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, and moved his candy-making operations. [3]
The mansion was originally known as Hillswold, named after Edmund Eldridge Hills who built the estate as his summer residence in 1914. Hills and Nichols, Wool Merchants operated a wool combing company that processed high grades of worsted tops.
He originally purchased the property in Shrewsbury in 1913 from Daniel C. Pullman. Hillswold had 32 rooms with a ballroom downstairs and a back porch. It featured woodwork of imported Italian pecan, canvas ceilings and marble light fixtures. Across the road was a farmhouse, barn and dairy with prize English sows.
Now known as the Hebert Candy Mansion, Frederick used the ballroom for packaging and the back porch as an ice cream parlor. Various additions were made to the building as the business grew, but he made sure to retain the elegant woodwork, canvas ceilings and marble fixtures. [4] With the mansion, Hebert Candies became the first roadside confectioner in the entire United States. [5]
In 1956, Frederick Hebert travelled to Europe to explore new flavors. Always looking to improve his recipes, he was introduced to ‘white coat’ candies, which had a coating of chocolate consisting of only cocoa butter. On his return to Shrewsbury, he experimented using only the cocoa butter, the fat from the cocoa bean without the brown colored mass (known as cocoa liquor) to create the decadent white chocolate recipe that he introduced to New England. [6]
Eventually Frederick passed the business onto his sons. Gerald bought out his brother Raymond and became the sole owner. His children—Ronald, Richard, Frederick Jr., and Dianne—went on to create Hebert Candies’ candy-bar fundraising business. The Candy Mansion still stands as the flagship retail location offering handmade chocolates, gift assortments and an ice-cream bar.
(1)(4) Lyn Lincourt, Mansions of Magnates, America in the Mad 20th Century (Tate Publishing, Mustang, OK, 2015) pps. 53-56.
(2) The Beginning of ‘The Hebert Candies’ (Hebert Candies & Gifts, 2024) https://www.hebertcandies.com/pages/our-history
(3)(5) Hebert Candies marks 100 years of yum (The Boston Globe, June 25, 2017) BostonGlobe.com
(6) Mr. Hebert’s Discovery (Hebert Candies & Gifts, 2024) https://www.hebertcandies.com/pages/our-history