Last of chocolate factory is set for reuse

MILTON -- The last remaining empty buildings at the sprawling Walter Baker Co. chocolate factory complex in Milton and Dorchester Lower Mills are on the verge of being redeveloped.

Two smaller structures -- one brick and the other wood -- on the Milton side of the Neponset River are slated to be converted to condominiums. The property owner, Extra Space Storage, also wants to erect a new five-story building as part of the project, which is to include stores and a restaurant on the first floor.

That proposal is now making its way through the town boards in Milton.

Across the river in Dorchester, a large, vacant brick factory building is targeted for conversion to 61 apartments. The condominium association that owns the building approved the reuse plan earlier this year, and construction is scheduled to start in February.

"This is not only a redevelopment; it is also an historic preservation project," said David Colton, chairman of the board of trustees of the Baker Square Condominium Association and Milton's former town administrator. The association represents 97 condo owners in an adjacent converted factory.

The chocolate manufacturing operation opened in 1765 . It prospered and expanded throughout the 19th century and part of the 20th, then closed in 1965 when the company moved its operations to Delaware.

Redevelopment has occurred piecemeal over the past 50 years. The Baker Square condominiums at 1241 and 1243 Adams St. in Dorchester opened in 1989. The Walter Baker Co. administration building was converted to artists' lofts in 2002.

The following year, Shaw's Supermarkets opened a new store in a renovated chocolate factory warehouse.

State Representative Linda Dorcena Forry, who lives in Dorchester Lower Mills and represents part of Milton, said reuse of the old factory buildings is revitalizing the area.

"It is going to be of great importance for Lower Mills," she said.