Do you love a good pain relieving rub?  I love a good Mentholatum rub!  The main ingredients in Mentholatum are Camphor and Menthol.  Smells evoke memories and when I catch the scent of Mentholatum memories come rushing in.  I’m a young girl who has fallen from swinging on the cold metal swings near where we lived in 55 LaSalle St, New York City.  I complain to my Mami about how my leg hurts.  Without hesitation as soon as we get home Mami gets the Mentholatum and rubs it on my aching muscles. It smells so good!  Mentholatum was in the medicine cabinet of every good Puerto Rican Mother in New York City.

I’m a young girl who has fallen from swinging on the cold metal swings near where we lived in 55 LaSalle St, New York City.  I complain to my Mami about how my leg hurts.  Without hesitation as soon as we get home Mami gets the Mentholatum and rubs it on my aching muscles. It smells so good!  Mentholatum was in the medicine cabinet of every good Puerto Rican Mother in New York City.

I love thinking about my childhood.  It isn’t just my childhood.  My childhood may possibly be the childhood of many Puerto Rican children, in New York City.  My parents met soon after arriving in the neighborhood of Harlem, New York, in 1954. They brought very little with them on their flight to a whole new life in New York City.  I’ll assume Mentholatum was in that suitcase.  

While researching my Puerto Rico Ancestry I came across an advertisement for Mentholatum. Little did I know it would send me to Buffalo, New York.  I’m not from Buffalo, New York, but the company which evokes my memory is.  The Mentholatum began in Buffalo, New York.  I found an advertisement in “El Imparcial” San Juan, Puerto Rico, 16 Jan 1923.  One hundred years ago today!

As it often goes when researching your family history you go down a “Rabbit Hole”. 

The Mentholatum Advertisement:  Hurry, hurry, it itches!  You will get immediate relief when you rub Mentholatum on where the skin is irritated from insect bites, poisonous plants, or other similar causes.  It destroys dangerous germs and removes pain quickly and completely.  It is used by millions of people around the world.  

• A Healing Cream – MENTHOLATUM – Indispensable at home.

Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean Ocean, there are all sorts of insects.  I remember my first visit to Puerto Rico.  I was 8 years old, and my parents sent my sister Melanie and I all alone on a flight to visit our great aunt, Ramonita, we called her Titi, and great uncle, Francisco, we called him Papa who lived in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. I had never left New York before. I had never flown on a plane and I certainly had never been on a farm before so this was exciting.  They had a small farm with a variety of animals, fruits and vegetables.  Chickens, pigs, birds, coconuts, beans, well the list goes on and on.  Along with this farm came bugs.  All sorts of bugs and the biggest mosquitos I had ever seen in my life!  I was scared. There weren’t any screens on the windows so the bugs were also inside the house. That day I noticed a large netting which wrapped all around the four poster bed. I picked fresh eggs with Papa, picked beans, and even picked out the chicken we were going to eat for dinner, but that’s another story for another day.  As the sun began to set the bugs started to come out.  I was attacked!  The giant mosquitos were biting me and I began to scratch, scratch, scratch.  Titi went into her medicine cabinet and put some Mentholatum on my mosquito bites.  Instant Relief!! Like I said before Mentholalum was in homes of all good Puerto Ricans.

So Today my “Rabbit Hole” is The Mentholatum Company.

The Mentholatum Company, began in Kansas City, by Albert Alexander Hyde, in 1889. Opened production in Buffalo 1903. Constructed a new modern factory in 1919. Relocated corporate headquarters to Buffalo in 1945. Expansions on Niagara Street in 1947, 1966. Company sold to Rohto Pharmaceutical which moved their operations to Orchard Park in 1989.

In 1923 The Mentholatum Company advertised cures for all sorts of aches and pains. Chapped Skin, Stuffy Nose, Headaches, Minor Burns, Sore Throat, Cuts and Scratches, Insect Bites, etc.

Fast Forward to 2023.  The Mentholatum, 1360 Niagara Street, Buffalo, New York. The building was designed by George Townsend and constructed in 1919.  Today The Mentholatum is a mix of luxury apartments and retail space.  If I lived in Buffalo I would probably rent an apartment in The Mentholatum.  Niagara Street is one of Buffalo’s oldest streets that’s now home to some of its newest businesses.  It’s also the longtime center of Buffalo’s Hispanic community.

The newspaper article came from https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/