World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseDuring the Great Depression, Milton S. Hershey decided to build a hotel on Pat's Hill in Pennsylvania, United States overlooking the town and the chocolate factory both bearing his name. The original phase of the construction aimed to recreate the famous Heliopolis Palace Hotel in Egypt, but the unexpected high costs, the death of his wife, and the outbreak of war led to the final phase of the project being finished with a simpler design with Spanish and Mediterranean influences. The end result was a luxurious hotel that was eclectic in style. Between 1939 and 1940, grand hotel building, or specifically its cupolas, served as the town's visual aircraft detection tower. In Nov 1942, the air defense stations moved to the nearby Milton Hershey School Senior Hall, and the hotel became the place of internment for Vichy French personnel such as Ambassador Gaston Henri-Haye. The internees had access to many of the hotel's amenities, thus the interment was rather comfortable; the internees, in fact, protested that they had to pay for their consumption of alcoholic beverages. During the next several months, a number of the internees declared allegiance to the Free French and were freed as political asylum seekers. In Sep 1943, Henri-Haye and the remaining internees were transferred out of Hotel Hershey to another internment camp in Warm Springs, Virginia, United States. Hotel Hershey resumed its business as originally intended immediately after the departure of the last internees.

Hotel Hershey Interactive Map

Hotel Hershey Timeline