The old Arcade-Sunshine Laundry, located in Park View, was founded by Harry Viner, who was born in Russian Poland and moved to Washington in 1907, where he subsequently built a one-man tailor shop into the largest dry cleaning and laundry establishment in the area and one of the largest in the nation.
Harry was considered a pioneer in dry cleaning, and was co-developer of the Stoddard solvent, which became the standard in the business.
Based on what is known at this time, it appears that the main facility located at 713-731 Lamont Street, NW, was completed either in 1920 or early in 1921. As part of the new plant’s festivities, Arcade-Sunshine invited every Washington housewife “to inspect the cleanest, largest, and sunniest and most scientific establishment for laundrying, cleaning and dyeing clothes in America.” The full ad, published in Nov. 20, 1921, is below.
The ad continues by encouraging visitors to inspect the plant, see the mammoth tanks where 55,000 gallons of water are softened each day, to visit the Mending Department, the Collar Ironers, and even the Clothes Extractors which had replaced the dangerous wringers.
The ad above was actually part of a two page spread. The lead page is below.
Washington Kaleidoscope 