1868 marked the year Baker’s first used a cooling system that allowed for limited chocolate production in the summer months. The company began hiring year-round employees, although the payroll still peaked in the winter months. The difference could be as drastic as 275 people employed during the winter with 50 remaining in the summer; only 18% worked year-round. It was not until 1907 when Baker’s installed an air conditioning system that most employees worked full-time, all year.

Beginning in the 1870s, the Baker’s work force roughly doubled in size every ten years. In 1868 forty-eight people (twenty-five men and twenty-three women) ran most of the operations in the mills. By 1911, forty-three years later, the workforce had expanded to 822 people with a significant percentage of women still active in all areas of production and operations.