In April of 1930, at the depth of The Depression, the Allentown Morning Call reported that “former Reading candy Manufacturer, William H. Luden, will build a $200,000 home on Spring Mill Road at Villanova.” That would be the equivalent of $3,100,000 in 2020, when the property was purchased from Andrea Kantor by Martha Benitez and Dean Cafiero – for $3,132,500.
Luden made his fortune in Reading, where he was born in 1859, the son of a Dutch immigrant jeweler. At the age of 15, he was an apprentice candy maker. Luden started a candy business in the back of his father’s store in 1879.
In 1881, Luden’s honey-licorice menthol throat drops were introduced. “Luden’s Menthol Cough Drops” were sold for many years in 5-cent packages. Menthol cough drops replaced the cumbersome vials of menthol that cold sufferers had carried to relieve their symptoms. Luden introduced new packaging methods as well, lining boxes with wax paper to extend shelf life. Perhaps his most remarkable innovation was to give samples to railroad workers, giving the product effectively national exposure in an early example of guerilla marketing.Read more, GoReadingBerks.
Luden “cashed out” of the candy business in 1927, selling Luden’s to Food Industries of Philadelphia for $6.5 million. He devoted the rest of his life to his “philanthropies.”
He died at his Atlantic City home in 1949 and was buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Philadelphia Inquirer – May 9, 1949
The former home of William H. Luden