Rochester Remembered for Contributions to the Perfume Industry {The 5th Sense in the News} {Perfume Images & Ads}
A 1934 Art Deco advert for Soir de Paris by Bourjois
Rochester is still associated with perfumery today through the fragrance Highland Lilac of Rochester and the lilac festival. Once upon a time, it was the home to a factory which produced Evening in Paris / Soir de Paris by Bourjois as well as a few other perfume businesses...
There was heyday in the 19th century even before Bourjois implanted their operations locally. The author speculates that it might be due to the abundance of flowers in the region.
"C.B. Woodworth Sons Co., a one-time power in the perfume industry, grew from a company founded in Rochester in 1855.
Alfred Wright, a native of Avon, Livingston County, started Alfred Wright, Perfumer in Rochester in the 1860s and went on to turn out several fragrances. They included American Beauty, Madam Butterfly and Maud Miller. Adolph Spiehler established his Rochester perfume company in 1867. His son, Adolph M. Spiehler joined the company in 1889 and it prospered under this leadership."
Read more at When Rochester Perfumed the World
