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BAH Networking at Hilliards Chocolates
You are invited to attend the February Business After Hours at Hilliards Chocolates at 321 School St., B-120, Mansfield
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The Chamber's Business After Hour networking events are a great way to meet fellow Chamber members, to distribute your business cards and/or brochures, and to make meaningful connections in a comfortable atmosphere. If you have never been to an after hours let us know and we will make sure an Ambassador welcomes you!
About our After Hours Host:A chocolate business built on generations of tradition...
Hilliards’ Chocolates – a leading maker of fine chocolates and specialty candies – is a family owned business in its fourth generation.
In the early 1900s, Perley and Jessie Hilliard, husband and wife, were introduced to the business of candy through Jessie’s father, Marcellus Parker, who owned a candy store in the Boston suburb of Haverhill. Yet it wouldn’t be until 1919, when Perley Hilliard took a job making candy in the Priscilla Sears factory in the Boston neighborhood of Hyde Park that a Hilliard would begin to learn first-hand, and hands-on, the craft of making fine chocolate and other sweets.
Perley Hilliard got the candy bug – and he was not content to work and make candy for someone other than himself.
Perley and Jessie Hilliard needed to make and sell their own candy, which they started doing in 1924 when they and a business partner opened a candy store in the Wollaston section of Quincy.
Perley and Jessie were passionate about making candy, and they closely studied recipes, and gave great care to creating their own. Fundamental to every one of the chocolates and candies they made were quality ingredients. There would be no scrimping – a commitment that has been diligently honored through the decades and from one century into the next. As Perley and Jessie grew a business they also grew a family.
The couple had seven children – Douglas, Ruth, Elizabeth, Alan, Dorcus, Phillip, and Christine – all of whom would become involved in the family enterprise that would operate stores in 14 locations; among those sites were North Quincy, West Roxbury, Newtonville, Newton Highlands, Newton Center, North Weymouth, Lexington, Martha’s Vineyard, Hanover, Weymouth Landing, and West Hartford, CT.
In 1950, one of the Hilliard children, Alan and his wife Barbara, opened a Hilliards‘ Kitch-In-Vue Candy (as the candy was made in a kitchen in view of customers) store in North Easton on Interstate Rte. 138. The store, located in a white with blue trimmed former house, with its signature giant box of assorted chocolates affixed to its facade, became a landmark for people in the region and beyond.
Over the next 30 years, Hilliards’ Kitch-In-Vue Candy drew crowds of candy enthusiasts, and those looking for unique gifts. In 1981, Alan Hilliards’ daughter, Judy, and husband, Charlie, bought Hilliards' Kitch-In-Vue Candy and renamed it Hilliards' House of Candy.
Tradition, quality, and excellence in the making of chocolate and candy did not miss a beat. Judy and Charlie McCarthy opened new stores, in Hanover, in 1989, and in Canton, in 2003. Hilliards' House of Candy launched an online store which soon became busy, and is only getting busier.
Judy and Charlie have three children – Brad, Erin, and Maegan. Each of the children, at one time or another, would work in the store and learn the art and business of making chocolates and candy. A family and business legacy continues, and now operating in the 21st Century.
In the fall of 2014, Hilliards’ House of Candy changed its name to Hilliards' Chocolates. In November 2014, Hilliards’ Chocolates relocated its Canton store to Mansfield.
These changes support and continue the Hilliard family commitment to delighting customers, making people smile, and maintaining an uncompromising dedication to confection perfection it started so long ago. Hilliards' Chocolates – built on … and maintaining – generations of tradition.
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Date and Time
Tuesday Feb 7, 2017
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM ESTTuesday, February 7, 2017
5:00 - 7:00pmLocation
321 School Street
Mansfield MA 02048Fees/Admission
Free to Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce Members
$10 for all Non-Members
Contact Information
Ruthie Briggs
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