APRIL 18: First Laundromat 

Profile America —Monday, April 18th. For urban dwellers, the difficulty — or at least the expense — of doing their laundry began to ease on this date 88 years ago. In 1934, the first public, self-operated laundry in the country opened in Fort Worth, Texas. The first name for the business was “Washateria,” eventually replaced with the now familiar “Laundromat.” Early facilities were not necessarily coin-operated, and there was always an attendant on duty. The automatic washing machine came along in 1937, and by the late 1940s, the first unattended, 24-hour Laundromats were opened. Now, there are over 10,500 dry cleaners and coin-operated laundromats across the country. Employing more than 40,000 people, they do $4.3 billion of grime-fighting business annually. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov. 

Sources:

Joseph Nathan Kane, Kane’s Famous First Facts, Fifth Edition, H.W. Wilson Co., New York, NY 1997, #2442.

“Washateria”, accessed 9/2/2021

Dry cleaners and laundromats and employment, County Business Patterns, NAICS 812310

Revenues, Economic Census, NAICS 812310