Luden Bon-Air Mansion - Reading

The original, Italian Renaissance style Luden Bon-Air Mansion was built in 1914, for William H Luden; the candy maker, his wife, Anne and their two youngest children. Six of their children were up and out by this time.  This spacious, full 3 story mansion, was designed by James Vickson.  Though started in 1914, the entire mansion was finished in 1922. When this mansion was constructed, William Luden had mansions in Miami and Palm Beach, Florida. He later built mansions in Villanova, PA, & Atlantic City, New Jersey.

As Reading, PA, was Luden's home town, where he started his candy /cough drop enterprise, Luden Candy Company, it makes sense that he would build a mansion here, close to his business in Reading. He was born in Reading on March 5th, 1859, and married Anne Ritter, in 1889, the daughter of the editor of the newspaper, Reading Adler.

Though the confection treats from the Luden Candy Company were very popular among the consuming public, William found that his most profitable product was a good tasting cough drop, that propelled his company to a huge commercial success.  He sold 5 million nickel packs of these delicious tasting cough drops.

Originally built in a very ritzy part of town, this "opulent" 33-44 room,  $750,000 Italian Renaissance style mansion was a grand estate for a self-made man.   It was built over an old iron mine, that was sealed but never filled in.  The outer walls of the mansion were made of limestone & brick, with marble pillars added all around the outside of the first floor, with marble trim and lovely stonework. From the western portico, the family had a lovely view of the city.

Inside, the finished wood floors were installed on heavy, reinforced concrete, as there were old mining tunnels underneath the mansion.  There was a grand central staircase leading up to all three floors. The common rooms were on the first, the bedrooms and bathrooms for each room were on the second, and the servant's quarters were on the third.  The mansion had a ballroom, a library, a bowling alley, a living room, a dining room, and a breakfast room.

Just two years after moving into Bon-Air Mansion, William's wife, Anne died in 1916.  William remarried Kathryn Fasig.

William Luden retired in 1927, and sold his company to Food Industries of Philadelphia, in 1928.  Luden passed away on May 8, 1941, in his mansion in Atlantic City.

The Luden Bon-Air Mansion was owned by family members until 1939, when the rector of St. Paul's Parish in Reading bought Bon-Air Mansion, with the mission of transforming the building into a new Central Catholic High School.

During this transformation, the Bon-Air Mansion's original architecture and structural lines were mostly preserved. The mansion's rooms were easily renovated and adapted for use by the high school.  School office was set up in the dining room, the library found a home in the living room, and the principal's office was in the breakfast room.

Also on the first floor, the music room, with a 20,000 dollar organ, donated by the Luden Family, language rooms, commercial department rooms, home economics department, biology,  and a laboratory with adjacent lecture rooms' were found there.

The second floor bedrooms were renovated to provide five modern classrooms and a girls' rest room.  As the school grew in numbers over the years, the third floor was transformed into other classrooms and rooms for various activities.

The basement became storage, chemistry labs, and a cafeteria for the students and staff.

Throughout the years, additional buildings and facilities were built behind the mansion, and on property nearby. The first expansion doubled the size of the high school, when the mansion was connected to its carriage house.  Many other improvements to the high school took place throughout the years to keep the high school up to date, and current, in order to be able to fill the educational needs of the students.

By 2004, it was decided that a new Catholic high school was needed, so plans were drawn up, money was raised, and the new high school, Berks Catholic High School opened its doors in September, of 2011.

While the old Central Catholic High School is closed, with no one there, and its future is up in the air, its spiritual residents now have their Bon-Air Mansion all to themselves for awhile; until the living decide whether to sell it to a new owner, or find another purpose for it.