Extended by popular demand!

Innovation in Springfield brought sweet success for clever entrepreneurs engaged in the business of candy making.

For fifty years, New England Equipment was the largest manufacturer of candy and chocolate making machinery in the world, which revolutionized the candy making industry and allowed for mass production of candy, while another Springfield business, the Kibbe Brothers Company, was by 1905, churning out 12 tons of candy a day, some of which was delivered as far away as California.  For local residents, they could visit any number of sweet shops, bakeries, or ice cream establishments such as the Nuttie Goodie Shop, Jensen’s Confections, and of course the first “Friendly” ice cream shop, opened in the summer of 1935  by the young Blake brothers in the Pine Point neighborhood.  This exhibition highlights these and other local businesses which have, over the years, successfully satisfied the City’s sweet tooth.