My love of Central Catholic High School (CCHS) started years before I was a freshman. 
Actually, it started before I ever stepped foot into a school. It all began with a honey-lemon cough drop.
Actually, it started before I ever stepped foot into a school. It all began with a honey-lemon cough drop. Yes, a cough drop.
Like sunshine-yellow oblong amber jewels, Luden’s honey-lemon cough drops were like priceless gems of candy. Unlike the more traditional gag-inducing, medicine-tasting throat drops, my little sister and I had no problem sneakily polishing off the mini white box of “treats” before dinner.
So, how do cough drops relate to a high school, you may be asking?
In the back room of his parents’ jewelry shop at 35 N. 5th Street in Reading, PA, a youn
g William H. Luden worked with a pharmacist to develop a menthol cough drop that was different from the medicinal red versions available to consumers at the time. In 1879 20-year-old Luden was not only an inventive entrepreneur but a savvy business man as well. In a time when other pharmacists sold their goods door-to-door, Luden convinced local merchants to carry his cough drops on in-store displays, much like the candy counter displays you find in grocery and mom-and-pop hardware shops these days.
g William H. Luden worked with a pharmacist to develop a menthol cough drop that was different from the medicinal red versions available to consumers at the time. In 1879 20-year-old Luden was not only an inventive entrepreneur but a savvy business man as well. In a time when other pharmacists sold their goods door-to-door, Luden convinced local merchants to carry his cough drops on in-store displays, much like the candy counter displays you find in grocery and mom-and-pop hardware shops these days.Cough drops led to other inventions including the delicious 5th Avenue chocolate bar (similar to a Butterfinger only much, MUCH better). Luden made his own confections and offered a variety of candies, chocolates, and marshmallow treats. Business demands required him to expand and relocate his factory twice within 20 years, its final home in the 200 block of North 8th Street where it continued production for 100 years. Reading was already a hub for industrial products; Luden’s business brought hundreds of additional job opportunities to the growing city.
If you venture downtown these days to the somewhat scary sections of the old, dilapidated factory complexes, close your eyes for a minute and imagine what it once was a hundred years ago—a bustling section of the city where workers rushed to and from work and thousands of commercial and residential products shipped out daily to cities around the world. It was a time when productivity, job opportunity, industrialism and capitalism drove the city’s development. It was a time before gangs and crime took hold of these same streets.
Immensely successful, Luden retired in 1927 and sold his company in 1928 to Food Industries of Philadelphia, a holding company of the Dietrich family, who continued his endeavors. In the 1930s Luden’s was shipping millions of pounds of candy to 26 countries!
William H. Luden’s individual success led to homes 
in Atlantic City, Palm Beach, Miami, and, of course, in Reading* where his Bon Air mansion is set on a quiet, tree-lined hillside overlooking Reading, PA. Built in 1914, the Indiana limestone faced building features an elegant two-story entrance complete with a marble staircase and wrought iron railing. Evoking the feeling of the Newport, RI mansions—the playground of the era’s rich and famous, the Bon Air mansion’s impressive wrap-around verandah has a breathtaking view of Reading’s rolling hillsides and the home’s perfectly manicured grounds. Erected on the outskirts of the rapidly growing city, it was more than a home; it was a palace in an otherwise blue collar town. It was a symbol and reminder of the American dream.
in Atlantic City, Palm Beach, Miami, and, of course, in Reading* where his Bon Air mansion is set on a quiet, tree-lined hillside overlooking Reading, PA. Built in 1914, the Indiana limestone faced building features an elegant two-story entrance complete with a marble staircase and wrought iron railing. Evoking the feeling of the Newport, RI mansions—the playground of the era’s rich and famous, the Bon Air mansion’s impressive wrap-around verandah has a breathtaking view of Reading’s rolling hillsides and the home’s perfectly manicured grounds. Erected on the outskirts of the rapidly growing city, it was more than a home; it was a palace in an otherwise blue collar town. It was a symbol and reminder of the American dream. Career and financial success, while impressive in its own right, is not the end all. Luden, a husband and father eight times over, experienced quite a few personal tragedies, not the least of which were the deaths of his first wife and a couple of his children. By 1940, the grandiose and profitable era which Luden helped usher in was coming to a swift close as America was on the brink of World War II. Luden’s factories abandoned their efforts feeding American consumerism and began producing cough drops and chocolates for our soldiers and the war effort.
In 1939, the pastor of Reading’s St. Paul’s Church purchased the magnate’s mansion with the intent of turning it into Berks County’s first centralized Catholic high school. Ove
r the years, the original mansion was expanded upon with the addition of over 15 classrooms, a cafeteria, locker rooms, a gymnasium and stage. The integrity of the mansion portion of the school was preserved and if you wander its halls to this day, you can still experience the grand architecture with decorative European elements, Luden’s personal library, dining room (now the office), and the living room (part of the expanded library). Though the Bon Air mansion became Reading Central Catholic High School, it has always been a home—first to the Luden family, next to the CCHS family of thousands of students. Every member of the CCHS family knows that this building is more than just a school. Walking into its halls on the first day of freshman year, the building’s history and amazing beauty hits you like a ton of bricks. This is no school. It’s a house—and an unforgettable one at that from its tucked away basement corridors to the bedrooms-turned-classrooms and to certain (invisible) members of the Luden family who still call it home today.
r the years, the original mansion was expanded upon with the addition of over 15 classrooms, a cafeteria, locker rooms, a gymnasium and stage. The integrity of the mansion portion of the school was preserved and if you wander its halls to this day, you can still experience the grand architecture with decorative European elements, Luden’s personal library, dining room (now the office), and the living room (part of the expanded library). Though the Bon Air mansion became Reading Central Catholic High School, it has always been a home—first to the Luden family, next to the CCHS family of thousands of students. Every member of the CCHS family knows that this building is more than just a school. Walking into its halls on the first day of freshman year, the building’s history and amazing beauty hits you like a ton of bricks. This is no school. It’s a house—and an unforgettable one at that from its tucked away basement corridors to the bedrooms-turned-classrooms and to certain (invisible) members of the Luden family who still call it home today. With the closing of CCHS now imminent, the CCHS family isn’t just losing its building. We are losing our home and a very real symbol of what it means to achieve the American dream. Every student, alumnus/a, and member of the faculty and administration is a part of William H. Luden’s legacy. He transformed the pharmaceuticals of his time, built an empire that lasts to this day under the Hershey and Johnson & Johnson umbrellas, and supported the local Reading community as a kind and generous employer and benefactor.
The next time you’re in a CVS or Rite Aid pharmacy anywhere across the U.S. and stroll by the cough drops, take a moment and consider the Luden’s brand. The best and longest lasting products usually start as an inspired moment from a “nobody,” not a major corporation spending millions on product development. William H. Luden lived the American Dream. He turned a hunch into a profitable reality benefiting millions all over the world. And it all started 125 years ago in a tiny, forgotten historical remnant of the Industrial Age, a mere dust particle on America’s map which time is blowing away. A little town with a rich 278-year history starting with William Penn's sons. A town which some locals are trying desperately to hold onto while others are trying desperately to escape. A town whose brilliance has faded but remains a diamond in the rough. A town called Reading, PA.
* Luden built two mansions in Reading. The first was a brownstone located at 709 N. 5th. The second was Bon Air situated at 1400 Hill Rd.
Images: Image #1: Luden's Cough Drops today (By: Andrea Kohalmi)
Image #2: William H. Luden (Posted By: http://berks.pa-roots.com/books/montgomery/l16.html)
Image #3: Luden's Bon Air Mansion (Posted By: http://www.goreadingberks.com/religion/catholicfaith/history/cchs.asp)
Image #4: The Bon Air Mansion's wrap-around verandah on my wedding day.
Resources: http://www.candyfavorites.com/blog/tag/william-luden/ http://www.cchscardinals.org/19771041193135867/site/default.asp http://www.goreadingberks.com/religion/catholicfaith/history/cchs.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Luden http://berks.pa-roots.com/books/montgomery/l16.html http://candyprofessor.com/2009/11/20/ludens-penny-candy-part-ii/ http://www.ludens.com/our_story.aspx http://berks.pa-roots.com/library/business/a-f.html http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=55001 http://www.jamparanormal.com/case_005 http://www.thehersheycompany.com/brands/5th-avenue/candy-bar.aspx?cat=cat#/1859 http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=54964: An interesting side note from this Reading Eagle article dated August 15, 2007: "When it celebrated its centennial, technically a year or two late, in 1981, Luden’s had enjoyed 100 years of uninterrupted prosperity. But within a few years, its owners had put it up for sale, and Hershey Foods Corp. (which subsequently changed its name) came up with the best bid. Hershey reduced not only its work force, but the plant itself, halving its space and tearing down a number of the buildings. However, it continued to see value in operating the facility, the Hershey Reading plant, which produces candies including the 5th Avenue bar and the York Peppermint Pattie. But Hershey ultimately decided to shed the Luden’s brand, and since 2001 it has been traded from one corporate owner to another. It resides under Johnson & Johnson’s suite of consumer goods."
