Hilliards House of Candy is a family owned business in its fourth generation.

In the early 1900s, Perley and Jessie Hilliard, husband and wife, were introduced to the business of candy through Jessie’s father, Marcellus Parker, who owned a candy store in the Boston suburb of Haverhill.

Yet it wouldn’t be until 1919, when Perley Hilliard took a job making candy in the Priscilla Sears factory in the Boston suburb of Hyde Park that a Hilliard would begin to learn first-hand, and hands-on, the craft of making sweets.

Perley Hilliard got the candy bug – and he was not content to work and make candy for someone other than himself.

Perley and Jessie Hilliard needed to make and sell their own candy, which they started doing in 1924 when they and a business partner opened a candy store in the Wollaston section of Quincy.

Perley and Jessie were passionate about making candy, and they closely studied recipes, and gave great care to creating their own.

Fundamental to every one of the candies they made were quality ingredients. There would be no scrimping – a commitment that has been diligently honored through the decades and from one century into the next.

As Perley and Jesse grew a business they also grew a family. The couple had seven children – Douglas, Ruth, Elizabeth, Alan, Dorcus, Phillip, and Christine – all of whom would become involved in the family enterprise that would operate stores in 14 locations; among those sites were North Quincy, West Roxbury, Newtonville, Newton Highlands, Newton Center, North Weymouth, Lexington, Martha’s Vineyard, Hanover, Weymouth Landing, and West Hartford, CT.

In 1950, one of the Hilliard children, Alan, and his wife, Barbara, opened a Hilliards Kitch-In-Vue Candy (as the candy was made in a kitchen in view of customers) store in North Easton on Interstate Rte. 138.

The store, located in a white with blue trimmed former house, with its signature giant candy box affixed to its facade, became a landmark for people in the region and beyond.

Over the next 30 years, Hilliards Kitch-In-Vue Candy drew crowds of candy enthusiasts, and those looking for unique gifts.

In 1981, Alan Hilliards daughter, Judy, and husband, Charlie, bought the business and renamed it Hilliards House of Candy.

Tradition, quality, excellence, and premium candy making did not miss a beat.

Judy and Charlie McCarthy opened new stores, in Hanover, in 1989, and in Canton, in 2003.

Hilliards House of Candy launched an online store which soon became busy, and is only getting busier.

Judy and Charlie have three children – Brad, Erin, and Maegan. Each of the children, at one time or another, would work in the store and learn the art and business of making candy.

A family and business legacy continues, and now operating in the 21st Century, Hilliards House of Candy is as proud and fully committed as ever to delighting its customers, making people smile, and maintaining the uncompromising commitment to confection perfection it started so long ago.

Easton, Rte. 138
508.238-6231

Canton Village Shoppes
781.828.9004

Hanover, Rte. 123
781.878.8533

www.hilliardscandy.com
A chocolate business built on generations of tradition...

Proud member of the following organizations:

Retail Confectioner International  
Judith Hilliard McCarthy, Current Member of the Board of Directors  

New England Retail Confectioners Association Past President Charles C. McCarthy 

New England Ice Cream Retailers Association                                               

Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce 

Easton Chamber of Commerce

Hanover Chamber of Commerce 

Metro South Chamber of Commerce

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