The Hood Plant property also fronts  200 feet on Church Street. Among the many businesses that have been located there, at one time there was a skating rink, W.C. Hoag Toy Factory and National Paper Tube & Box Company. Currently, Burlington Telecom is located at #200 Church at the corner of King Street.

Photographer Jack Delano visited Burlington Cooperative Milk Products at 187 S. Winooski Avenue in 1941. These photos are now viewable on the Library of Congress website:

Click Here to see photos of BCMP in archives of Library of Congress. 

A ravine connected The Winooski River to Lake Champlain in the 1800’s and a railroad line followed that same route. Imagine if that were the case in Burlington today! Presently, if you visit King Street near Winooski Avenue and Church Street, a noticeable dip in the road still exists. People like to hit the pedal to the metal as they pass through this area. 

Burlington Geographic

Disappearing Act_ Burlington’s lost ravine. _ Obscure Vermont

An Engineer and ‘Map Geek’ Unearths Burlington’s Past _ History _ Seven Days _ Vermont’s Independent Voice

Harvey Perley Hood 1823-1900

Harvey Perley Hood was born June 6, 1823 in Chelsea, Orange County, Vermont. HP Hood’s wife, Caroline Cowan, was also born in Vermont in Tunbridge, 1829. The story of H.P. Hood Milk begins in 1846 as a delivery service in Charlestown, MA.  In order to expand into the wholesale milk business, Harvey bought a farm in Derry, NH in 1856.  

His son, Charles Harvey Hood, joined the company in 1880, forming the partnership of HP Hood & Son. HP Hood suffered a stroke in 1883. In 1890, the company was incorporated as HP Hood & Sons when son Gilbert Hood joined the firm and by that time, the company owned four wagons, nine horses, operated three railroad cars daily. In 1900, HP Hood passed away and his three sons, Charles, Gilbert and Edward Hood took over running the company. In 1972, The company became HP Hood, Inc. 

HP Hood & Sons grew throughout New England to eventually become a national company. The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College is named after Harvey Perley Hood I, Dartmouth ’18, son of Charles P. Hood I and grandson of HP Hood I. The Charles H. Hood Foundation, was led by HP Hood’s great grandson Charles Perley Hood II, Dartmouth ’51. Are you following? It gets confusing. Click on photos below for more info. 

HP Hood LLC  took over Burlington Cooperative Milk Products and the building at the corner of South Winooski Avenue and King Streets, and from then on, it has been known as “The Hood Plant”.

In 1945, a dispute arose between BCMP and HP Hood over a termination clause click here HP Hood vs. BCMP. 

Today Metropark still receives emails, snail mail and phone calls from people who believe they are contacting H.P. Hood, the milk company, or Hood Park, the commercial complex just off I-93 in Boston. There is also a Hood Plant in Newport, Maine. One that closed in 2014 in Conklin, Maine. Another in Concord, New Hampshire. There are 13 active plants, including the largest in Winchester, Virginia and Batavia, Genesee County, New York

The Hood Plant and Metropark

1998 The Hood Plant

At the time Metropark, LLC. purchased the property in June of 1998, the plant was still utilized as an office and a dairy products distribution center; however, a fair amount of stainless steel equipment, related to its previous life as a pasteurization center, was still housed here. The back parking lot was ringed with electric services into which the refrigerated trucks plugged. Neighbors reported constant humming sounds coming from the charging trucks.

A few members and friends of Phish, the band that formed in Burlington, VT in the 1980’s, lived in a small house at 156 King Street directly across from The Hood Plant. Their song “Harry Hood“, about the mascot for Hood Milk, was inspired by the painting of Harry Hood on the big white tanks that were located on the Northwestern corner of the building (Sadly, these were removed before Metropark took ownership, otherwise we would have preserved them for jam band history). The chorus is simple, but profound: “Harry! Harry!  Where do you go when the lights go out?”

Click here for an 18-minute live version of  “Harry Hood” from Phish’s You Tube Page.  Curious how many times  Phish has played the song live and other vital stats? Then click here to read all about it:  http://phish.net/song/harry-hood. The first known performance of  “Harry Hood”  is believed to have been performed October 30, 1985 at Hunt’s on Main Street in Burlington. More Harry Hood Here:  http://www.jambase.com/Articles/122836/The-JamBase-List-Seven-Golden-Ages-For-Harry-Hood

1980’s Television Advertisement for Hood Shake-Ups, featuring Harry Hood: Harry Hood stars in a Hood Milk Ad

Phish logo hacker Waldo turned the ‘hood’ logo upside down and sold ‘pooh’ paraphernalia to those, in on the joke, out in the parking lot at Phish shows.

Jam Bands are not the only to use Hood: Check out I’m So Hood!