It seems cleaning the laundry has always been a challenging domestic task. In 1843 a female writer to the Vermont Phoenix, (Brattleboro’s local paper), proposed the creation of a public laundry and “wondered why the fertile genius of some Yankee has not taken this branch of domestic labor, as it has carding, spinning, etc. and applied such mechanical aids whereby a large amount of labor may be accomplished by the aid of steam.” She went on to share her frustrations with attempting to hire women to help her with her washing and other domestic chores.
The editor of the paper, William Ryther, replied, “We shall be glad to see any plan carried into effect to lighten the labors of our wives and daughters, or to diminish the expenses of housekeeping. We are aware of the difficulty of obtaining ‘help.’ Most young women who go out to work prefer labor in the factories to labor in families. In factories they command higher wages, and feel more independent. The young women who are brought up among our green mountains, and breath our free air, do not relish the idea of going into families to work where they are required to eat at a ‘second table,’ and at church are seated in the ‘pew for help.’ We suppose they are somewhat tinctured with the democratic notion that all women ‘are created equal,’ as well as all men.”
In the early 1840s the railroad had not yet arrived this far north, bringing with it immigrants willing to become “hired help.” However, by the end of the decade Irish immigrants would come to town because of the railroad. They had not been “brought up among our green mountains” and they would fill many domestic roles.
Meanwhile, in 1843 local mechanic Samuel Foster rose to the challenge and “constructed machinery for the purpose of washing clothes.” The Phoenix called Foster “an ingenious and worthy mechanic.” The paper went on to say, “We judge from an examination of the machine and its appendages that it will not only save much hard labor, but do its work with the least possible wear to the clothes.”
We can find no record of what happened to Foster’s machine but a United States patent for a hand powered washing machine with a drum was not issued until 1851. We know the patent was not issued to Brattleboro’s Samuel Foster.
The next mention of a laundry business in local papers does not occur until 1872. On South Main Street, in a small building owned by Jacob Estey, a steam laundry began. It was owned by L.F. Pettee and the paper declared “the washing, drying and ironing apparatuses are of the latest and most approved pattern.”
A steam laundry did not use steam to directly clean clothes. Instead, steam power was used to run engines that powered the laundry machinery. A steam engine ran multiple belt driven machines at once. The belts were connected to overhead spindles. The washers and dryers were run through their cycles by the belts attached to the spindles. This technology was similar to that of a cotton mill. Pettee’s steam laundry proved to be a success.
In 1881 a competing public laundry opened. Wong Lung, a young man from China, began a laundry in the basement of Main Street’s Union Block. This was not a steam laundry. This laundry washed by hand and used hot irons to dry and press the fabrics. Wong Lung had two other Chinese men join him in his business. They had traveled from Los Angeles, California. The newspaper reported that the Chinese men were a curiosity to many of the local residents. Most Brattleboro residents had never seen a person from China before. The next year Sing Kee, a Chinese immigrant from Holyoke, Massachusetts, took over the Union Block laundry.
In 1882 the United States Senate was debating a bill to restrict Chinese immigration for up to twenty years. According to the Vermont Phoenix, “It is undeniably the case that New England sentiment does not sympathize with the restrictive policy toward the Chinese.” However, Vermont Senator George Edmunds “made a speech defending the principle on which the bill is based. Mr. Edmunds said the fundamental prosperity of a republic consists in the homogeneity of its people; that the Chinese here do not assimilate socially or politically, and are not homogeneous with our population … The immigration of the Chinese has created discontent and political discord among the people of the Pacific coast, and he believed it only right that the nation should exercise its just power and suspend immigration.” The paper went on to say, “It will be hard to cure New Englanders of the belief that Californian opposition to the Chinese is founded in prejudice, narrow jealousy and intolerance; but the fact that Mr. Edmunds takes another view of the question will lead a good many people to hold their views with more moderation.”
The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur. Arthur was born in northwestern Vermont and grew up in upstate New York. The Exclusion Act was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States.
The local public laundry business continued with steam laundries competing with hand laundries. In 1889 the Phoenix reported Lu Chin, “a bright young Chinese laundryman has caught on to the American idea of not getting left behind.” The City Steam Laundry on Flat Street made a cut in its prices, reducing shirts from 12 cents to 8, so Chin matched the price and then cut his other prices so they would be 25 percent less than his competition.
The prejudice and intolerance mentioned in the Phoenix may have been on display during a few incidents reported in the following years. In 1885 a 14-year-old boy was caught stealing money from the drawer of a Chinese laundry. The boy was brought before a judge and when the judge heard the evidence he sided with the boy and the laundry lost about $5 from its till. The judge gave the boy a warning. The paper reported the accent of the laundryman was hard to understand so the judge gave the boy the benefit of a doubt.
In 1893 a Chinese laundryman chased students into St. Michael’s School and threatened them. The nuns challenged the man and asked him to explain himself. He said the boys had been throwing objects into the laundry in order to torment the laundryman and disrupt his ability to work. The laundryman said he wanted to cut the ears off the two boys who had been harassing him. The police were called and they visited Charlie Sing, the owner of the laundry. He was told that he would need to replace the laundryman with another worker. During the ensuing years there were many reports of attempted robberies at local Chinese laundries.
Washing laundry at home with domestic help, having it picked up by the steam laundry’s delivery wagon, or dropping it off at the Chinese hand laundry was a function of economics, social status, immigration policy, and personal preference.
Chinese and steam laundries spread to Elliot, Flat, Church, High and Main streets. From the 1880s to the 1930s there were always multiple commercial laundry options in Brattleboro. One of the last steam laundries closed in 1932 when Custom Laundry bought out Brattleboro Steam Laundry. The last Chinese laundry closed in 1944. It operated in the Manley Building on High Street.
One of the most enduring laundries was begun by Mrs. William Russell in 1887. She owned and operated a laundry business on Elliot Street until 1919. It began as a hand wash laundry and evolved into steam powered machines. Mrs. Russell’s Laundry became the Custom Laundry when she sold the business to Hugh Agnew. Custom Laundry dominated the Brattleboro commercial laundry business until it closed in 2010.
The first coin operated laundry in Vermont appeared at the bottom of Brattleboro’s Main Street in 1958, across from the Holstein Building. Shaw’s Dime Laundromat debuted in April and was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their advertisement claimed, “You can do a 35 lb. laundry for only 80 cents ... and dry this load for only 40 cents, a total of $1.20 for a whole week’s laundry. Where can you do it any cheaper? Not even at home!”
The introduction of electricity allowed laundry machine manufacturers to attach little electric motors to each machine, making them portable. Steam power went out of fashion and the introduction of electricity allowed for the rise of home washing machines and public do-it-yourself operations.
After World War II electric home washing machines were status symbols that became ammunition in the Cold War “Kitchen Debate” between the Soviet Union and the United States. The historical answers to the challenges of cleaning laundry may be found in the mixture of immigration policies, the advancement of technology, the struggle for women’s equality and the desire for clean socks.
The Link LonkMay 15, 2021 at 09:00PM
https://www.reformer.com/history/loads-of-laundry-history-in-brattleboro/article_371b3ebe-b405-11eb-9102-e33026656870.html
Loads of laundry history in Brattleboro | History | reformer.com - Brattleboro Reformer
https://news.google.com/search?q=Laundry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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