Google Earth Pro map (2020) with historical laundries shown.
The Troy Steam Laundry Company incorporated on October 20, 1906.
With plans to open the business on February 4, 1907, B. F. Walderon (president) and A. J. Mercier, (secretary-treasurer) placed a large ad in the Goldfield News (GN) on January 26, 1907, stating the location was at the “s.w. corner of Hall and Third street and occupies two of ten lots.”
This location would be Goldfield townsite block # 33, lots 9 & 10 as found on the 1909 James Parks’ map. It would have “…a laundry plant that would be a credit to a city of 100,000 people,” and a “…mammoth mangle for handling what is known as flat work.” For water, the company would drill their own well and the system would include two redwood tanks with a capacity of 15,000 gallons of water. Although the following photograph is not related to the Troy Steam Laundry, you can appreciate the size of a “mammoth mangle” shown at the Bonanno Laundry in Boston, Massachusetts.
Commercial mangle. Courtesy of Alamy Stock Photos.
Starting in late 1907 and through the better part of 1908, the Troy Steam Laundry received several payments from the Esmeralda County Board of Commissioners under the categories of indigent, hospital, and indigent sick fund. The report of county claims and payments was published regularly in the local newspaper. For example, from the board’s December 2, 1907 regular meeting, two claims from the Troy Steam Laundry, which amounted to $278.40, were reviewed and payments approved. Other payments that year averaged $75 to $120 each. These claims were likely for laundering hospital bedding.
They were ordered to operate with Walderon’s approval only. Apparently, the laundry’s board didn’t agree with the direction Mercier and Walderon were taking the business.In April 1909, less than two years in business, the Troy Steam Laundry went into receivership. In the case of “A. J. Mercier v Troy Steam Laundry,” in the District Court for the Seventh Judicial District of Nevada, A. J. Mercier (the laundry’s secretary-treasurer) filed an application for a receiver’s appointment and restrictions on the actions of the board of directors of the laundry. In his affidavit, Mercier requested that B. F. Walderon (the company’s president and acting manager)‒who was never accused of any mis-management‒be appointed the receiver of the Troy Steam Laundry Company. The court agreed to the application and appointed Walderon as receiver and issued a restraining order against board members. They were ordered to operate with Walderon’s approval only. Apparently, the laundry’s board didn’t agree with the direction Mercier and Walderon were taking the business.= (Goldfield News and Weekly Tribune-GNWT- 04/10/1909)
Joe Dunlap with Troy Steam Laundry truck in Las Vegas, 1914. Courtesy of University of Nevada, Special Collections.
I was unable to find a photograph of Goldfield’s Troy Steam Laundry business, but it was one of several by the same name in Nevada and across the country. This image is of a laundry truck in Las Vegas in 1914. – KH
On December 20, 1909, Judge Theron Stevens approved the land application filed by B. F. Walderon on behalf of The Troy Steam Laundry Co. The application was assigned number 876 and the property applied for were lots 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of Block # 33. This works out to be the northern one-half of block 33, bordered on the north by Hall Avenue, on the west by Fourth Street, and on the east by Third Street. Walderon’s description of the property went like this:
Application 876 title page. Courtesy of Esmeralda County Recorder’s Office.
1 frame laundry building 100 ft by 30 also 1 Boiler Room 30 x 30 ft. (4) four cottages 1 stable 2 good wells of water over 80 ft deep 1 is 4 x 5 feet in the clear the other 3 ½ ft. round shaft. Laundry machinery coust [sic] about 10.000 Ten Thousand Dollars. Total cost of Improvements about $25,000 Twenty Five Thousand Dollars. Two years and a half ago on or about Sep 15th 1907. All well fenced.
Walderon completed the application by stating the laundry purchased the property on October 22, 1906 and had owned the said improvements since September 15, 1907. The document was signed “The Troy Steam Laundry Co., By B. F. Walderon, Pres., Mgr., and Reciever [sic].”
On the left side of the 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance map you can see a frame structure at the northeast corner of Block # 49 labeled Troy Steam Laundry. (This equates to the James Parks’ 1909 Goldfield townsite map block # 33, lots 9 & 10). The map also lists “own electric plant; elec. pow & irons.”
Although located just southwest of the Goldfield Steam Laundry, the Troy Steam Laundry fared better during the 1913 flood.
1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Above and to the right of the Troy Laundry lots you can see where a good part of Sanborn Block # 43 has been covered over with correction tape. This block, with the large Goldfield Steam Laundry business, was damaged heavily by the 1913 flood. Because the Troy Steam Laundry was built on land several feet above the flood path it avoided a flood disaster and remained in business for at least five more years.
Laundry business aside, the Troy Steam Laundry was a member of the Business Men’s and Mine Owners’ Association and donated to local causes such as the Red Cross and the Fourth of July Celebrations. And it would be hard to top the company’s generosity in the summer of 1915. Apparently, the town’s citizens had longed for public swimming pool. Two proposals were heard by The Unity Club. Mr. Patrick, for the local water company, offered to supply 15,000 gallons of water daily for a tank 30 feet by 60 feet. As for location, Mr. Patrick suggested a “plot of ground, 100 feet by 110 feet, which could be bought for $50. It was situated at the corner of Crook Avenue and Second Street and because of its central location could be easily accessible to the water and sewer lines.” It’s not clear which corner of the Crook Avenue and Second Street intersection Mr. Patrick was referring to, but all four corners had been in the 1913 flood path. (GNWT 06/26/1915)
Then, A. J. Mercier, on behalf of the Troy Steam Laundry, made the impressive offer. If $3,000 were raised, the laundry would add an additional $1000 and that money would be used “to build a tank at the corner of Hall and Third streets upon a tract of land, 240 feet by 220 feet, comprising 16 lots. (This is the corner where the laundry business sat, so it’s not clear which corner or “16 lots” he was referring to.) The Troy Steam Laundry would run the swimming pool summer and winter, would plant lawn and trees, and it would be enclosed by a high fence. They would bring in 100 loads of sand for an artificial beach and equip the facility with hot and cold showers and waiting rooms for the ladies and gentlemen. An extra boiler would also be purchased. The offers didn’t even compare. Basically, all the city had to do was bring $3000 to the table‒most of which had already been raised‒and the Troy Steam Laundry would build what sounded like an impressive public swimming pool.
For whatever reasons, the committee chose the original plan offered by Mr. Patrick. Unfortunately, that pool was never built. Within a month the committee announced they would return the donated money and postpone plans to build the pool until the following year. It was late in the year to be planning a pool and they didn’t raise the amount of money they had hoped for. (GNWT 07/31/1915) All was not lost as far as swimming in Goldfield though, at least for some young men. In April of 1916, Joe Jonasen, who owned the Turkish baths business on the northwest corner of Miners Avenue and Columbia Street, offered to let the Boy Scouts use the baths. Charles G. Patrick, manager of the Goldfield Consolidated Water Company‒the same man who thought it was a good idea to build a swimming pool at the corner of flood-prone Crook Avenue and Second Street‒offered to fill the 20,000-gallon tank once a week, and “after the boys have finished their swim, to empty and thoroughly scrub it. In this way the tank will always be clean and the water pure.” (GNWT 04/15/1916)
Our community-minded laundry business never operated a public pool for Goldfield, but it was an important part of this town for 10 years or more. It’s not clear when the laundry went out of business, but it stopped appearing in the Goldfield phone directories after the 1918 publication. In early 1919, a news article stated that, “Bert Stevenson left Sunday morning by automobile for Calexico, where he will join A. J. Mercier in operating a laundry.” (GNWT 01/04/1919) The laundry’s long-time secretary-treasurer was moving on and perhaps that marked the end of Goldfield’s Troy Steam Laundry.
Part 3 of this article will look at Goldfield’s French Laundry.
