Signs of being upside down in downtown Hershey

Looking at the small picture in Chocolate Town
A record player
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Upside down Kiss lantern in downtown Hershey

One of these things is not like the others in this Chocolate Avenue median strip.

An upside down American flag is an official signal of distress.

An upside down Hershey’s Kiss – on one of many lighted bollards that separate the eastbound and westbound lanes of Chocolate Avenue – is a signal that downtown Hershey could benefit from a greater attention to detail.

The realignment of Cocoa Avenue (forming a square at Chocolate Avenue) and construction of a new Park Avenue bridge were completed last year. There’s a promising plan for renovating the current post office building, perhaps to accommodate a brewpub.

The post office was one of five big-picture downtown projects I discussed last December. Now’s the time to focus on the nitty-gritty.

Chocolate and Cocoa avenues

The bollixed up bollard is just about at the former intersection of Chocolate and Cocoa avenues, where once stood a set of iconic street signs. Here’s how they looked as photographed by Frances Civello:

Chocolate and Cocoa avenues sign

Through the years, many a tourist posed there for a souvenir photo, the signs making it unmistakably clear that they could only be in one town in America. When  I recently went to take a photo of the signs for a project, I discovered that they are no longer there. The light pole remains, however, and the darker strip of green near the top betrays where the signs used to be.

Tom Clark, Derry Township’s public works director, told me the township removed the street signs at the request of the Hershey Co., on whose property (the old Community Center) the pole resides. Of course, Cocoa Avenue no longer meets Chocolate Avenue at that exact spot, but what harm was there in keeping the signs, particularly at a time when Hershey Co. is recommitting itself to downtown?

Triangle on the square

It’s too bad that the pole and signs couldn’t have been incorporated into whatever will become of the grassy triangle (below) created by the realignment of Cocoa Avenue.

Chuck Emerick, director of community development, told me the township is hoping to acquire the triangle, which figures prominently in Downtown Hershey Association’s plans for redesigning downtown. (The association released sketches in which the area is elevated by 30 inches and surrounded by a railing that complements the old Community Center.)

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The road work downtown included construction of a pedestrian underpass beneath Chocolate Avenue. As underpasses go, it’s lovely, its walls lined with a rock veneer.

Oddly, the rock pattern wasn’t used on the sidewalk walls that lead to the underpass on each side of Chocolate Avenue. Instead, it’s just nondescript poured concrete.

“There are discussions to dress that up,” Emerick said, noting that what’s there now is per the approved PennDOT plan.

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Of course nothing I have described above compares with the once-in-a-generation opportunities that exist downtown, whether it’s renovating the post office, transforming the Community Center into an upscale hotel (my idea; who’s with me?), or turning the old chocolate factory into a retail/entertainment destination.

But when you’re pondering the big picture, I would argue, it’s important not to lose sight of the small one.

About the Author

Neal Goulet

Neal Goulet, Owner
Having been a journalist, Neal knows writing, grammar and style, as well as the language and movements of a newsroom.
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