Caswell-Massey

1906–1936

During the early to mid-1900s, the apothecary business expanded its service to provide 'custom' perfumes and fragrances as private stock for its most notable customers. Customers who used this service were interviewed on their food, music, and lifestyle tastes and given five fragrances to try. After some time, their favorite fragrance was selected, and five variants were created. After a final period of wearing these, the customer's signature fragrance was refined and bottled and could be ordered on demand. This was an expensive service at the time, costing customers up to $200 per ounce. A second gentleman's scent, Newport, was added in 1890.

Customers to the Caswell-Massey stores during this time included many notable New Yorkers, as well as Broadway stars such as Alla Nazimova, and New York elite such as the Astors and Vanderbilts; George Gershwin, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. In 1926 a store was opened on Lexington (the 48th in New York City), in what was then the Barclay Hotel, later InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel. ( It remained the company's flagship store until 2010, when the Barclay's Hotel was closed for renovations).

In 1936, Ralph Taylor and his younger brother Milton Taylor bought the company. Ralph had worked for Caswell-Massey for twenty years since 1916, when a 13-year-old Ralph Taylor was hired to sweep the shop and clean bottles in the basement. Unlike the previous owners, the Taylors retained the name Caswell-Massey, which had acquired a worldwide reputation during the 60 years under Caswell as one of the world's most important fragrances and soap brands.

1940–1956

In 1941, Caswell-Massey introduced Tricorn cologne and expanded its notoriety among the New York elite. The company's cold cream was a popular product for many Broadway actors, along with composer Cole Porter who wore the new Tricorn cologne.

Beginning in March 1955, Caswell-Massey was subject to a 20-month-long strike by the Retail Drug Employees Union Local 1199, triggered after a soda fountain washer claimed he had been fired because of his union membership. The store was picketed, delivery drivers were threatened or beaten, phone lines were jammed, and a stink bomb was thrown into the store. The phone-jamming operation resulted in felony convictions of several union organizers.

1960–1988

During the second half of the century, clients included United States President John F. Kennedy, who wore Caswell Massey's Jockey Club cologne; his wife, Jacqueline Onassis (who bought avocado oil), and pop culture figures who shopped from the company's famously hand-illustrated direct mail catalog and who frequented the company's Lexington Avenue Store. Patrons at the Lexington & 48th street store included Debbie Harry, Joni Mitchell, John Denver, and the Rolling Stones. In the 1980s, the company expanded across the United States and added several overseas stores.

Caswell-Massey was managed by the Taylor family from 1936–1989. Milton's older son Adam joined the company in 1974 and soon became president, and his younger son Joshua joined in 1979. When they started working at Caswell-Massey, the company had only one store. However, the new younger Taylor blood injected fresh energy into the enterprise. Over the next ten years, they added 20 more retail stores and about a dozen franchise stores spread throughout the US and Canada.

Also, during that time frame, Josh oversaw and overhauled the extensive product lines and assortments offered by the company and introduced or re-packaged 600 Caswell-Massey branded products, and together with the retail store expansion, the company grew ten times in sales.

As of 2017, the company remains privately owned and operated in America, headquartered in Edison, New Jersey. The company re-branded in 2017, including the launch of a new website and catalog. Updated formulas, new fragrances, and a new fragrance bottle design have been re-released.