Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 4, April 2004

Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Carson Cleaners:

A U-District fixture for four decades

By JAMES BUSH

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and movie star Sly Stallone have dropped off clothes at Carson Cleaners, but the most famous customer of the venerable University District business is named Nordstrom.

Yes, Seattle's best known clothing retailer is a steady customer, with Carson Cleaners handling the dry cleaning needs for Nordstrom's downtown, Northgate, and Bellevue Square stores.

"You find very few people in this business that have been around as long as we have," says Bob Carson. "A lot of our regulars like to stay with family businesses."

Carson Cleaners was founded in 1948 by Bob's parents, Roy and Doris Carson (Roy passed away last summer at age 94). The business started in a storefront on the current site of the U-District's Safeco Tower building, then moved to NE 75th Street and Roosevelt Way NE.

The Carsons were lured back to the U-District in 1961, when the owners of the property on the northwest corner of Brooklyn Avenue NE and NE 47th Street offered to construct a building specifically to house their cleaning business.

Bob joined the family business in the early 1960s after college and a hitch as a U.S. Navy submariner. "I got back and started doing all the jobs so I could learn the business," he says.

Wife Janice, who had worked off and on at the cleaners, became the full-time counter person on Doris Carson's retirement. Bob and Janice bought the business in 1982.

The first lesson of dry cleaning is that it isn't really dry. The dry cleaning machine resembles a large washing machine, but instead of water, it uses a solvent known as perc (or perchloroethylene, for you chemistry majors), which is known for its ability to remove grease, fats and oils from fabrics. The machine includes a distilling unit that removes the impurities from the perc, which can then be reused.

"I won't show you what we get out of there." says Bob. "It's a black, gooey peanut butter-like mess. That's what people carry around in their clothes without knowing it."

Janice likens the dry cleaning process to taking apart a puzzle, then putting it back together again. Various chemical treatments are used to remove tough stains which are able to withstand the perc. Then, the clothes are pressed, waistbands are stretched, and the garment is returned to top condition.

As workplace attire has grown more casual, the dry cleaning business has taken a hit economically, says Bob. "Suits used to be our bread and butter. That whole line would be full of suits."

Now, he says, formal attire is found mostly at weddings and funerals.

Some other trends have worked in their favor: most households include down quilts, and some people have realized that dry cleaning lengthens the life of most any article of clothing (some people even dry clean jeans to avoid fading and shrinking).

There's an average two-day turnaround time for most cleaning orders, although the Carsons are still willing to do rush orders. "A lot of times, college kids realize they have some [event] that night," says Bob. Carson Cleaners also has a full on-site alternation department.

The business received a two-star rating from the The King County Department of Natural Resources EnviroStars program for business practices that prevent pollution. Bob shrugs off the honor, noting that it's always been his usual business practice to invest in the best equipment available.

The Carsons' constant companion is Chief, a dog that used to belong to a man who often stayed in a nearby shelter. Bob took him in when his owner died, and Chief has had the run of the shop ever since. "I can't get rid of him," jokes Bob. "He has more friends than I do."

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Carson Cleaners is located at 4701 Brooklyn Ave. NE; 522-8584.