Busy Bee Candies was once one of the city’s most beloved makers of sweets. Two Candy brothers—Walter and Gilbert—founded the company in 1888. Its headquarters, downtown at 417 N. Seventh, hosted a retail store on the first floor and a full-service restaurant, serving everything from omelets to $1 lamb chops, on the second. Dessert was served at a full-service ice cream parlor. In the company’s manufacturing division, chocolate was melted in giant copper kettles heated with steam, and candies were laid out to harden on long conveyor belts. Busy Bee Candies were a favorite of St. Louisan Hugh Campbell, an heir to the Robert Campbell fur trade, banking, and real estate fortunes, who gifted the chocolates to charities and house guests. Walter built and lived in the beautiful brick house featured in the October 2024 issue of St. Louis Magazine. The current owners designed a candy room on the first floor in his honor. Walter passed away in 1928, and Gilbert sold his interest in the company in 1935. The company shut down in 1959.
