Visitors welcome at Rehoboth Laundry in 1936

When this picture was taken in 1936, Rehoboth Laundry was a thriving business – among many of its kind in Delaware. Self-service laundromats debuted in the 1930s but didn’t catch on until the 1950s. This building was located in Rehoboth just east of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal, and employed men and women. Phillip O. Downs opened Rehoboth Laundry Service in 1928 and owned it until his retirement in 1946. 

The service was seasonal, as articulated in a 1947 article in The News Journal that describes a “Laundry Club” that established itself on Baltimore Avenue in the off-season.

“While usual bridge clubs take pride in correctly manicured and cream-softened hands around the card table, the ‘dishpan hand’ group must show they’re of the female fraternity that invites frostbitten fingers and roughened skin while hanging out their own wash. With the Rehoboth Laundry shut down during the winter months, scores of housewives are patronizing a small community laundry that washes their clothes while they wait, but the women must hang the garments out themselves. The ladies already are calling the new laundry on Baltimore Avenue a clubroom, and the idea of playing cards while they wait was brought up this week. There would be just enough time for a round of bridge.’”