Not so surprising result.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...-Milton-Hershey.html

Inside the ghostly Cuban town once called Hershey where the chocolate baron ran sugar mills and plantations to supply his growing empire. Milton Hershey acquired land in Cuba in 1916 after the First World War disrupted European sugar supplies. He founded a town called Hershey, around 30 miles from Havana, centered around his most productive mill. Hershey had 160 homes for workers, a tuition-free school, baseball stadium, movie theater and a golf course. After Milton's death in 1945 it was sold on, then taken into government ownership by Fidel Castro in 1959. The mill closed in 2003 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the town has largely fallen into ruin.

Cuba is not exactly the place you would expect to find an ageing monument to one of America's most famous capitalists, and yet - 30 miles outside the capital Havana - just such a place exists.

Officially called Camilo Cienfuegos, after one of the revolutionaries who fought with Fidel Castro, it is known to locals by its original name - Hershey - after American chocolate baron Milton Hershey.

The Pennsylvania businessman first began acquiring land in Cuba in 1916 to produce cane sugar after the First World War destroyed huge tracts of land used to produce sugar beet in western Europe.

The same year, he founded the town of Hershey Central around his most productive mill, which was among the most technologically advanced in the world for the time.

Hershey even constructed an electric railway between Havana and the port of Matanzas to transport his supplies, parts of which are still in use today.

Milton Hershey was well-respected for his treatment of the Cuban workers and was the Grand Cross of the National Order of the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the highest honor the Cuban government could bestow.

Speaking to the New York Times, former Hershey resident Gonzalez Bernal described it as 'a world apart' from the rest of the country, and the envy of nearby towns which lacked many of the facilities they had.

In 1945 Mr Hershey died in the other town he founded - also called Hershey, but located in Pennsylvania - of pneumonia, and his Cuban holdings - which by then included some 60,000 acres - was sold to the Cuban Atlantic Sugar Company.

Then in 1959, following the communist takeover of the country by Fidel Castro and his band of revolutionaries, the town was taken into government ownership and renamed.

That began a period of slow decline. Responsibility for repairing the homes was shifted to the workers, and lower government wages meant many could not afford the upkeep.

But the mill itself remained open and productive for decades after Fidel's takeover, with most of the sugar sold to Russia, which was Cuba's largest trading partner.

But the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 sounded the death-knell for the mill and ultimately the town. While it staggered on for a while afterwards, it never recovered and was forced to close for good in 2003.

The Cuban government retrained the factory workers for the nearby tourist industry, sent them to work in the oil fields and built a tile factory in town, but most residents either left for Havana, or else went overseas.

These images were taken by a photographer who goes by the name of Bullet from Florida while on holiday there.

'I visited Havana and heard about the town of Hershey on my way to Matanzas and just had to see it,' he said.

'The photos depict a town that, from what used to be described, was similar to suburbs here in the US with manicured lawns and maintained homes and buildings. Now, it's pretty far from that.

'The people living in that town are very welcoming and open to taking photos there.

'This is an example of a normal town after the Cuban Revolution, when the government seized businesses and utilities throughout the country and redistributed the homes to the people.

'In writing it sounds like a good idea, but in practice, this is the result.'

Neat story. I hope to visit Cuba sometime soon.

quote:

In 1945 Mr Hershey died in the other town he founded - also called Hershey, but located in Pennsylvania - of pneumonia, and his Cuban holdings - which by then included some 60,000 acres - was sold to the Cuban Atlantic Sugar Company.

Sounds like his heirs at least got their money out.