Grist wheel for grinding cacao beans
Grist wheel for grinding cacao

Original grist wheel inside the courtyard of the former home of the Baker Chocolate Factory

A grist mill typically grinds and crushes cereal grain into flour by using a pair of millstones—the botton stone fixed and the stone on top turning. In colonial Boston, such mills existed along the Neponset River. In the 1760s, the Irish immigrant John Hannon and the Dorchester physician James Baker began chocolate production in one of those mills, which were powered by the water of the Neponset River. The Walter Baker Chocolote Factory was born. The original grist wheel for grinding cacao beans is displayed is now displayed in the courtyard of the former home of the factory—located at the northwest side of the Neponset River Gorge.

If you have't been there before, plan a sight-seeing trip during your next Neponset River Trail tour to see the historic, hand-carved wheel. Get a feel of the place where North America's first chocolate was industrially produced. The Baker Chocolate Factory is only a short walk away from the Milton station of the Mattapan Trolley line.

References and further reading

[1] Irene Costello. Boston and the Chocolate Factory: Baker's Chocolte Reminisced. edibleBoston. URL: https://www.edibleboston.com/edible-boston/edible-traditions-502 (accessed: March 28, 2021).

[2] “We have more Chocolate”: Chocolate Innovation in the Industrial Revolution. Multimedia Essay 1, Multimedia Eassays on Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food, March 18, 2019. URL: https://chocolateclass.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/we-have-more-chocolate-chocolate-innovation-in-the-industrial-revolution/ (accessed: March 28, 2021).
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