The Heritage of Hate was at first scheduled to be a three-reel film, the 8 July 1916 Motion Picture News reported, and the following week's Motography announced that director Burton George and his assistant Justin McClosky had already begun shooting it as such. A week later, however, the 22 July 1916 Motion Picture News reported that Roberta Wilson, the sister of Universal star Lois Wilson, was being moved up from one- and two-reel features and would star in what was now a five-reel version of The Heritage of Hate. Agnes "Brownie" Vernon was mentioned at this point as one of the stars, but she was not involved in the final production.
       The Heritage of Hate was nearing completion, the 19 August 1916 Motography noted.
       The Bluebird division of Universal announced in the 7 October 1916 Moving Picture World that it was releasing The Heritage of Hate for the week of 22 October 1916. The following week, however, the same magazine reported that The Heritage of Hate, after being "edited and cut," was "not up to Bluebird requirements" and had been withdrawn and replaced in the schedule by Love Never Dies (see entry). A month later, the 11 November 1916 issue of Universal's in-house magazine, Moving Picture Weekly, ran an advertisement revealing that The Heritage of Hate was now a Red Feather production with a release date of 13 November 1916. It was the 42nd Red Feather motion picture.
       The 16 July 1916 Los Angeles Times reported that for an office scene in The Heritage of Hate, Universal's stenographers played themselves, typing on their own typewriters on an office set.
       During filming, according to Moving Picture Weekly, Betty Schade "was called upon to do an unusual 'roll'—down the whole length of a staircase. The steps were padded, of course, but the scene required a rehearsal, and Miss Schade refused to have a substitute put in for her....The finished result certainly adds a thrill to the big scene, but Miss Schade was black and blue for weeks." The stairs were part of a huge set for a ballroom scene. "The walls were fully thirty feet high, with a huge stairway in the middle, flanked on either side by balconies overlooking the dancing floor. The whole thing is built of mottled marble that glistens in the multitude of glass chandeliers with which it is lit." However, the picture's biggest scene was photographed at night "on the Municipal pier of the city of San Diego, where part of the picture was filmed." Thousands of spectators showed up, and director George "exploded fifty pounds of powder under an enormous pile of barrels, boxes and debris of all kinds, hurling the whole in the air, to the accompaniment of dense clouds of smoke." The San Diego Fire Department was filmed rushing down Broadway toward the pier at full speed. The night before, another waterfront scene had been filmed with a motorboat exploding, "sending the sailors leaping from all sides into the water."
       Wid's was impressed by Universal's fire scene, but complained about the "stock ballroom set that they have used in so many productions recently, the unfortunate part being that they always shoot from the same angle."
       The film was screened in Butte, MT, as early as 9 November 1916, according to that day's edition of The Butte Miner.
       The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021.