A town built around a factory
Milton Hershey chose the site for his new chocolate factory in Derry Township in 1901, close to the dairy farms that would supply it. Around the factory he built a town with parks, schools, churches and housing for his workers, and the town took the name Hershey in 1906.
Rather than renting company houses to employees, Hershey wanted workers to own their homes, and the company helped employees build houses of their own. The result is a town center of solid early-20th-century houses, surrounded by later neighborhoods as Derry Township grew.
Hershey's houses, era by era
- Early-20th-century brick and frame houses near the town center, often with steep roofs, porches and chimneys.
- Mid-century Capes, ranches and split-levels in the neighborhoods that followed.
- Larger newer houses with complex rooflines on the edges of the township.
Replacing roofs on the older houses
- 1Check how many layers are on the roof and whether the deck is plank boards.
- 2Plan new flashing at chimneys and porch roofs, where older houses leak most.
- 3Treat low-slope porch roofs as separate membrane roofs flashed into the house.
- 4Improve attic ventilation that older houses were built without.
See also: Asphalt shingle roofs · Slate and metal roofs
Newer Derry Township homes
Newer neighborhoods tend to have big architectural-shingle roofs with valleys, dormers and skylights. Those details, plus ventilation for large attics, drive how long a replacement takes. Summer thunderstorms with hail also send many of these roofs into replacement; see hail damage.
Questions
+Do I need a permit to replace my roof in Derry Township?
Pennsylvania's code generally exempts residential re-roofing from a state permit, but townships can require one. Ask Derry Township's code office before work begins.
+My house has a porch roof with a very low slope. Can it get shingles?
Shingles need a minimum pitch. Very low porch roofs are usually covered with membrane roofing and flashed into the main wall.