Mrs. Steven's Candies
History
Julia Clark was born on a farm near Wayne, Illinois in 1896. Facing limited income in the mid-1920s, she began making fudge for a local bakery. After pitching to a Chicago drugstore owner named Walter Krafft, she founded Mrs. Steven's Home Made Candies. The company grew into a 43,000 square-foot Humboldt Park factory employing approximately 500 workers — mostly women. Mrs. Steven's became famous for beautifully decorated seasonal candy tins including a 1933 World's Fair edition. By the 1940s the company operated 16 Chicago retail shops plus locations in Milwaukee and New York. Julia sold her controlling interest in 1956. After her husband's and daughter's deaths in 1959, the brand was renamed Stevens Candy Kitchens, then Martha Washington Kitchens in 1966, disappearing in the 1970s.
Products
- Boxed chocolates
- Seasonal holiday tins
- Fudge
- 1933 World's Fair tin
Candy Pages
- Mrs. Steven's Seasonal Candy Tins
Premium boxed chocolates and fudge sold in decorative lithographed tins with seasonal and themed designs — including holiday motifs, floral patterns, and a special 1933 World's Fair edition.
Notable Firsts
- One of the first woman-founded candy manufacturers in Chicago to achieve industrial scale
What Happened
Renamed Martha Washington Kitchens 1966; dissolved ~1970