Good-bye Washday Blues?
Doing laundry using a machine washer. Source: Delineator magazine, July, 1927
In the early 20th century, Monday was typically washday for American housewives. It was an all-day affair, even if you were one of the few who owned a powered washing machine. Home laundry required multiple steps: rubbing each item with soap, soaking it in hot water, wringing it out, and finally hanging it to dry. Even if you had one of the new-fangled powered washing machines—like the one shown above—this still required multiple steps, eleven according to an article in the Delineator Magazine of July 1927. No wonder washday was often called blue Monday.
For those who could afford it, a local laundry service would do the work for you. Some even had pick-up and delivery service.
By 1906, housewives had the option of doing laundry at home. At that time, Stevens’ Fancy Grocery on Base Line Road (now Stark Street) was a pickup point for City Laundry located in downtown Portland.
A few years later, the Acme laundry on Burnside—a little west of Montavilla—offered delivery service for Montavilla customers on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. This was a wet-wash laundry, that is, a commercial laundry that washed your clothes and sent them back damp for you to dry and iron at home.
A purpose-built laundry in Montavilla proper may have appeared in 1910. According to the Oregonian of October 16, 1910, a group of men had purchased a site on East 80th and had already ordered machinery for a future plant. Unfortunately, I could not find information about whether this laundry was actually built or, if so, how long it was in business.
Whether or not a laundry on 80th Avenue materialized in 1910, we know for sure one was built in Montavilla in 1925 for John Charles Fremont Brown (1856-1938). It was located on Glisan at 72nd Avenue. The building still exists, most recently housing O’Neill’s Tools.
John C. F. Brown was not new to the laundry trade. He had worked in the laundry business as a deliveryman from at least 1898 until 1920. He worked for two established downtown Portland laundries: Model Laundry and Palace Laundry. He owned his own delivery vehicle, exchanging his horse-drawn wagon for a motorized truck in 1912.
In 1920, Brown opened his own laundry business at 305 Russell Street between Williams and Rodney Avenues. Three of his sons—Floyd P. Brown (1886-1952), Frank Clair Brown (1895-1945), and Oscar L. Brown (1890-1973)—also worked in this business.
John Brown typically went by John C. F. Brown or J. C. F. Brown, perhaps to avoid confusion with C. F. Brown, who owned the Yale Laundry in downtown Portland.
The Sanborn map describes Brown’s business as a wet-wash laundry. But Portland city directories list both Brown’s Wet Wash Laundry and Brown’s Towel Supply at this address.
As indicated earlier, a wet-wash laundry offered only washing services. A towel laundry, on the other hand, provided clean “linens” for businesses such as hotels, hospitals, restaurants, and gyms. A towel laundry delivered clean items and picked up the soiled ones for washing and pressing. To make sure soiled items returned matched the number previously delivered, the deliveryman had to keep an accurate count. In 1923, John’s son Frank noticed a shortage in the number of dirty items he was picking up from a surgeon’s office. When Frank mentioned this, the client punched him in the eye. Frank took him to court, where the surgeon was found guilty and fined $50.
In 1925, Brown’s towel service remained on Russell Street, but he moved his wet-wash business into a new building in Montavilla. It was located on the north side of Glisan at NE 72nd. With this new location, the corporate name for the business changed from Brown’s Damp Wash Laundry to The General Laundry Company. It was ready for occupancy sometime after the final plumbing inspection on June 16, 1925.
The new laundry was built of brick—a wise choice, since the boilers posed a fire risk. Brown and his sons were probably aware of the fire that almost destroyed the Consolidated Wet Wash Laundry on Halsey Street, caused by an overheated boiler. The wood-frame building was almost completely destroyed.
Like most general laundries, Brown’s probably employed mostly women. The work was hard, and wages were typically low. At a wet-wash laundry, items were marked, sorted, washed, and wrung out. By 1917, a woman’s workday was limited to eight hours, but it still meant a lot of standing on concrete floors in a very hot, humid environment. Housewives may have been relieved of the washday blues, but laundry workers experienced them every day.
In October 1919, Portland laundresses went on strike, demanding better pay. Sometimes they were the sole support for their families, according to Portland’s Labor Press. Several sworn testimonials by the striking women describing their circumstances were published in that newspaper’s October 18, 1919, edition. Here is one example:
Whether labor conditions at Brown’s laundry were better or worse is unknown. But he undoubtedly expected his business to succeed. He could afford a new building in Montavilla, so presumably the Russell Street laundry was doing well. The American laundry industry was growing rapidly in the 1920s, reflecting a growing demand and increased receipts.
Despite hopeful prospects, Brown’s Glisan-Street business failed. In December 1927, the General Laundry Company declared bankruptcy. Why this business failed is unknown. It was almost two years before the stock market crash of October 28, 1929. Whatever the cause, the plant equipment, supplies, and real property were auctioned on January 17, 1928.
Although the Glisan-Street business did not succeed, Brown’s Towel Service survived for many years. It was still in business in 1943, operating at a new location on East Flanders Street.
While the Brown family’s towel service lasted into the 1940s, many commercial laundry services declined during the Depression. Fewer families could afford this service. After World War II, home washers and dryers became more affordable, reducing the need for laundry services. If you could not afford your own equipment, you could find washers and dryers for personal use in laundromats, which became increasingly popular in the 1950s.
What happened to Brown’s building in Montavilla? After the laundry closed in 1927, Leonard Betz (1897-1957) purchased the building and opened his Fancy Dry Cleaners in June, 1932. The most recent occupant of Brown’s brick building was O’Neill’s Tools & Equipment store. In 2024, the building was sold for $1,010,000 to Tool Building, LLC.
Soon, the historic building will have a new look, a new purpose, and a new life. The BAM collective is currently transforming it into a modern space to house several local businesses.
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This is part of Montavilla History Questions Answered, a series of history related articles. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future.