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H. P. Hood and Sons Milk Company

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1928–1929. 500 Rutherford Ave.
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)

Harvey Perley Hood moved his prosperous Derry, New Hampshire, dairy business to Charlestown in 1894. Hood's company became the first milk company in New England to pasteurize milk, the first to use glass bottles in packaging and shipping milk, and the first to use the railroads effectively to market its products over long distances.

In 1900, Hood transferred operations to Rutherford Avenue, strategically located next to the freight depots of the Boston & Maine Railroad. Between 1928 and 1929, he built the present three-story red brick with limestone trim structure with a capacity to process 300,000 quarts of milk daily. Though the company sold the factory in 1980 to Agway, the building remains a monument to an important Charlestown industry. Now called Hood Business Park (480–570 Rutherford Avenue), the complex retains the original smokestack announcing Hood Milk.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

William F. Schrafft and Sons
St. Francis DeSales Church Complex
Bunker Hill Community College
23–58 Green Street
Charlestown Savings Bank Building

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "H. P. Hood and Sons Milk Company", [Boston, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-CH12.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 210-210.

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