Geneva Mineral Springs
(From the September 1992 Historical Society Newsletter)
“The City of Geneva has been endowed by Nature with many special gifts. Of these the Geneva Mineral Springs are among the very first in practical value and usefulness.”
This claim was made by the owners of Geneva Mineral Springs in a 1920s advertising brochure which targeted Genevans. In a “special offer to Genevans,” the brochure announced that the owners were
“Making the water available for home consumption in Geneva at a price which places it within reach of everyone. Any resident of Geneva may now obtain Pure, Sparkling Geneva Mineral Water at one dollar ($1.00) per case of six gallons delivered at his door…. Write, call, or phone your order. Do it now!”
Geneva Mineral Springs
Perhaps the mineral springs’ owners felt some Genevans needed special encouragement to purchase the “Pure Sparkling Water, rich in Health Keeping Qualities,” which flowed almost in their own back yards. But Geneva residents and foreigners alike had been praising the water’s medicinal qualities since the 1880s, when it was first discovered off of Exchange Street during a search for oil.
The timing of the springs’ discovery was right, since by the end of the 1800s mineral water was an extremely popular remedy for everything from rheumatism to kidney diseases. The owners of Geneva Mineral Water had it chemically analyzed, and it was found to have an excellent combination of just the right chemicals, especially lithium bicarbonate, magnesium sulphate, and sodium sulphate. Geneva’s water even won an award at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.
When the Geneva Mineral Springs changed hands in the 1920s, the property that was part of the transaction included part of a block on Exchange Street, two spring houses, a storage warehouse, a bottling factory, and about an acre of land near the lake and the New York Central Railroad, “with switching privileges.” The new owners who took over the business in the 1920s announced, “Shipping facilities are unsurpassed and water can be loaded directly into freight cars from both springs.”
Flowing at a rate of 350,000 gallons per day, the water from Geneva’s springs was shipped to places as distant as Oregon and Florida. According to the advertising material, it received hearty endorsements from physicians and their patients everywhere. A typical endorsement from an MD at Harper Memorial Hospital Philadelphia read:
“It gives me pleasure to testify to the worth of Geneva Water in the diseases for which such water is to be prescribed. I have ceased ordering the other hitherto popular waters, and confine my recommendations to the Geneva.”
A patient in Buffalo testified, “My general health is now better than at any time before in twenty years, which I credit wholly to ‘Geneva Water’ habit.” And one man even moved to Geneva because the water had healed him of several illnesses.
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