Before 1954, Toledo didn’t have a dry cleaning service capable of washing suede or leather, two popular garments of that era.
William Nunemaker wanted to change that.
Seizing on a business opportunity, in 1950, Mr. Nunemaker — a Toledo man who gradated from Scott High School in 1943, served in the Navy as an aviation radar technician and later studied at the University of Toledo — drove more than 2,000 miles with a friend to Los Angeles to learn how to clean leather and suede at the Kirkpatrick Leather School.
The late Mr. Nunemaker had been working for Gallagher Cleaners on Haverhill Avenue at the time, but had aspirations to open up his own shop.
That dream came to reality a short time later, in 1954, when he purchased and opened Lincoln Drive-In Cleaners on Upton Avenue in West Toledo. The cleaner became the first shop to offer leather and suede cleaning in the city, as was chronicled in a 1967 edition of American Drycleaner Magazine.
Mr. Nunemaker’s three sons Bill, 68, Bob, 66, and Jim, 63, have run the shop since 1980, keeping the legacy of their dad’s shop alive for 65 years. Their sisters, Nancy Iagulli and Susan Sofo, also worked at the cleaners for a long time, as well as their mother, Dorthy Nunemaker. But Lincoln is closing on Dec. 31, as the three brothers have decided it is time to retire.
Jim Nunemaker, the youngest son of Mr. Nunemaker, who died in 2013, said his father would be proud that his three sons kept the shop open for 65 years, and also would be happy for them in their next chapter.
“One of the things [my dad] would say is don’t work your whole life,” he said with a laugh. “He’d be glad that we’re going to retire.”
The shop is taking orders through the end of the year before closing for good. On Thursday, Rebecca Patterson, a flight attendant from Savannah, Ga., entered the shop for one last clean. She became emotional after interacting with the Nunemaker brothers.
“I tote my dirty clothes from Savannah, Ga., to Toledo,” the 66-year-old Mrs. Patterson said. “They’re wonderful. They’re always so nice and they do such a wonderful job. It’s amazing. It’s hard to find anyone that cares about their job anymore. These guys do.”
“It’s like an institution in Toledo,” she added of the cleaners.
In the late 1970s, William Nunemaker expanded his business by adding fire and water damage restoration services in order to “supplement the business,” his son Bill said.
“We had a lot of things going on, we were pretty busy back then,” Bill Nunemaker said, adding that the cleaner still does restoration for cleaning services such as Serv-Pro or ServiceMaster, whenever they get called.
Bill Nunemaker, the oldest brother, said he hopes the dry cleaner will be remembered for its friendly service and reliable attention to detail.
“We just do a lot of things that are time consuming, but I hope the customers appreciate it or notice it,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of customers coming in that are sad that we’re closing and they’ve come here a long time and it’s kind of like a friendship. We’ve developed a friendship with them. We like to be friendly and call them [customers] by their first names if possible. And customers have appreciated that.”
Bob Nunemaker said his family’s business always stayed busy because the family built a trusted reputation within the community .
“We’ve prided ourselves on doing a good job,” he said. “We take care of everything we do and I think if you do that, you’re always going to be busy, so we’ve always been busy. And customers become loyal that way. if you do a good job, they keep coming back and I think that’s kind of our legacy.”
Jim Nunemaker said closing the shop will be “emotional” for both the customers and the Nunemaker family. But the Nunemaker family is closing the shop with their heads high for all of the hard work they provided to the community.
“I feel we’ve got a good name. You go in to department stores and you’ll hear someone ask the counterperson, ‘Where should I take this to get it cleaned?’ And I’ll hear the name Lincoln Cleaners. That says a lot.”
First Published December 21, 2019, 1:57 a.m.
