Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Arts & Culture, Industry & Commerce, People

Location

1233 E Main St, Rochester, NY 14609, USA

Lat/Long

43.161245928383, -77.579190913693

Grant Recipient

Rochester Public Library

In 1922, Martha Matilda Harper opened this brick building to house her company’s offices and laboratories for the manufacture of cold creams, hair tonics, and a vast number of other products for use in her beauty salons. The Harper Method of Beauty Culture was founded in 1888 by Harper, a native of Canada, who arrived in the United States in the 1880s as a domestic servant. Using a hair tonic formula said to have been given to her by a Canadian doctor for whom she had worked (Atlasobscura.com), Harper impressed her American employer and many of her employer’s affluent friends. Originally, Harper provided treatments for customers in their own homes. Her first salon was located in the Powers Building in Rochester.

Eventually, Harper began to train other women in the Harper Method. These women then opened shops of their own in other U.S. cities, Canada, and Europe. By 1928, over 500 shops where affiliated with the Harper Method system.  Many sources credit her with not only developing a franchise system that predated companies like McDonald’s by decades, but initiating the concept of a professional “salon” that empowered women business owners. (They Made America, PBS.org) As of 2022, the Rochester Museum and Science Center held a large collection of Harper Method artifacts.