The Dry Cleaners

By Reno Bailey

The long, low structure was built very soon after Cliffside was founded, for the purpose of showing silent movies, or “flickers,” as they were called in those early days.

As a theater, it was rendered obsolete when the Memorial Building was completed in 1920, providing the community with a modern new theater.

In 1927 Cliffside Mills renovated the structure to house a new business, “Rutherford County Dry Cleaners,” owned by Geo. C. Shuford and A. M. Haynes.

This photo of the building was taken in December 1970, over half a century after it was built. By now, like the rest of Cliffside, it looked scraggly and rundown, but apparently the cleaners was still in operation, for there was a lighted Pepsi machine—and a weight machine!— at the front.

Jobie Biggerstaff — In the ‘50s the company, now called the “Cliffside Dry Cleaners,” was run by Jobie and Beth Hawkins Biggerstaff. Here’s Jobie “spotting” a garment. This may have been the original equipment from the ’20s.

The business also handled laundry, which was actually done elsewhere, at places like Forest Dale Laundry in Forest City. This is George Hawkins, Beth’s brother, bringing back a load of finished laundry for delivery.

Workers at pressing machines. — From front to back: Pauline Dover, Lillian Wilkins and Euell Macopson.

This is John L. Wilkins. These photos are from about 1955.

Over the years, many others worked here, including Ivy Shuford, Bill Horton and Roland Wallace. These were hot, sweaty jobs—every machine emitted steam, in a room cooled only by a noisy, dirty exhaust fan.

In the mid ‘70s, the creaky, sagging old building was gutted and razed.

Photos by Roy Lee Harris, contributed by Sherry Harris Phelps.