Masonry Magazine August 1975 Page. 7
The new Hospital and Medical Center designed by Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson of Philadelphia is a sleek, white Indiana limestone structure situated on a 216 acres site.
events in the life of the founders are depicted in Italian marble encircling the Milton Hershey School seal.
While Founders Hall is a tourist attraction, and awesome in its size and grandeur, it is also the functional headquarters for the Milton Hershey School. In the Camelot Room, for example, are dining facilities for intermediate students. A huge, brick fireplace, and walls of brick laid in a nogging pattern dominate one end of the room with its wood floors highly polished and immaculate. "Maintenance problems are solved by doing continuous maintenance", states Dr. John O. Hershey who is President of the school.
More than 2,600 people can be seated in another area, which is the chapel-auditorium. Its 75 feet high ceiling and the loge seats are supported by massive, yet delicate appearing 53 feet high brick arches-22 in all on both sides of the auditorium.
Founders Hall is also a television center for the school where students become involved in all facets of television production. The administrative and business offices are also housed in Founders Hall. The visitors' section has maps, slides, models and dioramas that interpret the goals and functions of the vast school.
Not too far from Founders Hall is an equally impressive structure of sleek Indiana limestone covering 216 acres and serving as the hospital and medical center. The 340-bed facility was designed by Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson of Philadelphia, PA with Mason Contractor Clifford Minnich and masonry craftsmen setting the 4" slabs of Indiana limestone, some weighing up to 6,000 pounds each. General Contractor was Ritter Brothers Inc. of Harrisburg, PA. The end result is a contemporary structure that is gleaming white as the sun plays on it and accentuates the tinted, horizontally-slotted windows giving the seven-story structure the appearance of a futuristic, luxury, apartment house.
The sign of quality is also stamped on the nearby Hershey Motor Lodge & Convention Center with 460 rooms nearly always filled with tourists or convention groups drawn to Hershey for tours of the chocolate-making industry, a trip to Hersheypark, a visit to the Hershey Museum of Indian and Pennsylvania Dutch artifacts, a tour of Founders Hall, a walk through the Hershey Rose Gardens and Arboretum with 42,000 roses, or the many other points of interest.
Guests enter the Lodge through a gazebo supported by 6 brick arches of white tinted brick. The lodge is made of the same brick with touches of wood and capped by a split-shake, cedar-shingle roof. Visitors also like the grand Hotel Hershey high atop a nearby hill, and restored to its early quality.
Adjacent to the Lodge, and of matching brick, is a large Convention Hall. Its Chocolate Room alone can accommodate up to 2,000 guests for dinner. The decor throughout is Aztec, symbolic of the people who first used the chocolate bean. The carpeting of the lobby, for example, is
masonry
• August, 1975
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