Schrafft's was a candy, chocolate and cake company based in

Sullivan Square Sullivan Square is a traffic circle located at the north end of the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after James Sullivan, an early 19th-century Governor of Massachusetts. Sullivan Square station on the MBTA Oran ...

Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins ...

. The famous Schrafft's neon sign is a significant landmark in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, although the former factory it sits above, constructed in 1928, has been redeveloped for business accommodation. Schrafft's later expanded to form a chain of Schrafft's restaurants in New York, and a collection of motor inns and restaurants along the eastern seaboard from New England to Florida during the 1950s and 1960s.

History

Schrafft's was founded as a candy company by William F. Schrafft in Boston, in 1861. Frank Shattuck took over in 1898, expanding the company to include restaurants. By 1915, they had nine stores in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, and one in Syracuse, NY, as well as the facility in Boston. They had grown to 22 stores in 1923, 42 stores in 1934, and 55 stores in 1968. Schrafft's sponsored the 1959

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

telecast of '' The Wizard of Oz'', the first of the film's annual telecasts (it had been shown once before on television in 1956). PET milk purchased Schrafft's in 1967, breaking the ice cream, restaurant and cake, and candy operations into separate companies. The ice cream is produced under license by the company. In 1968, in an attempt to broaden their customer base, Schrafft's commissioned a 60-second television commercial from pop artist

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

. The company's former candy factory in Boston was turned into commercial office space. Located at 529 Main Street, Charlestown, Massachusetts, it is known as the Schrafft Center and owned by the Flatley Company. Among its tenants are Business Valuation Resources, Boston Digital, Fitcorp, All IT Supported,

Bright Horizons Family Solutions Bright Horizons is a United States–based child-care provider and is the largest provider of employer-sponsored child care. It also provides back-up child care and elder care, tuition program management, education advising, and student loan repa ...

, Beacon Hospice, iCorps Technology,

Mary Kay Cosmetics Mary Kay Inc. is an American privately owned multi-level marketing company. According to '' Direct Selling News'', Mary Kay was the sixth largest network marketing company in the world in 2018, with a wholesale volume of US$3.25 billion.

, Newton Scientific,

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...

Boston, and the

Massachusetts Department of Public Health The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is a governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with various responsibilities related to public health within that state. It is headquartered in Boston and headed by Commissioner Monica ...

. in 2019, James Byrne, a godson of the Shattucks, the founding family of Schrafft's Restaurants, announced the return of the brand with plans to open brick-and-mortar retail in the near term.

References

External links

ADVERTISING; New Agency For Schrafft's
* ttps://www.amazon.com/When-Everybody-Ate-Schraffts-Restaurant/dp/1569802955 When Everybody Ate at Schrafft'sbr>ESL Academy Computer Systems Institute
{{coord, 42, 23, 04, N, 71, 04, 20, W, type:landmark, display=title 1861 establishments in Massachusetts American chocolate companies Charlestown, Boston Companies based in Boston Companies established in 1861 Confectionery companies of the United States Restaurants established in 1898 Restaurants in Boston