From the Collection #13: Sweet Success
These photos and the accompanying caption were originally posted to our Facebook page (link to external site) on February 14, 2024.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s a sweet bit of history with a St. Albans connection...
Louis Sherry was born in St. Albans in 1856, and worked as a young man as a waiter in restaurants in New Jersey and New York City. In 1881, he used his savings of $1,300 to open his first restaurant in New York City, which struggled at first but quickly won over the city's social elite with its "dainty decorations" and "novelties of service." The restaurant moved twice, each time to a larger and more prestigious location, before closing in 1919 due to Prohibition. That same year, Sherry established Louis Sherry Inc., a gourmet candy and chocolate company that packaged its products in ornate metal tins like this one in our collection. Sherry died in 1926, but the tins bearing his name are still produced to this day (and still filled with delicious chocolate)!