In 1949, ownership of Montevallo Cleaners, which was located at the time in the 721 building on Middle Street next to Carpenter Brothers Garage, transferred from Clarence Chism to Earl McGaughy. Mr. McGaughy continued to operate the business in that location until 1957 when he moved his laundry and dry cleaning plant into a recently renovated building that had previously been home to “Doc’s Barbecue” and had been a pool hall just before Mr. McGaughy became the new owner.
The new new Montevallo Cleaners building was on the corner of Middle and Valley Streets immediately adjacent to Ottis Bean’s barber shop. This new location allowed Mr. McGaughy to offer his customers a new concept in retailing – a “Drive-in Cleaners.” He constructed a curved driveway that entered the property from Valley and exited onto Middle. All a customer had to do was turn their automobile into the driveway and come to a stop at the door. There was a rubber tube stretched across the driveway, and when a car rolled over it, the heavy pressure would trigger a bell, alerting someone at the desk that a customer had arrived. An employee, or Mr. McGaughy himself, would come out to greet the customer and either take in the clothing being dropped off, or ask if they were also picking up cleaned garments. Many customers had charge accounts with Montevallo Cleaners, so they could take their finished cleaning and then pay for it when they received a statement at the end of the month. Earl McGaughy continued to operate the business well into the 1970’s until his health failed.
At his death, his family tried to keep the business going, but found it more workable to lease the plant to others to operate. Eventually, the building began to serve as a pick-up station for more than one Shelby County dry cleaning business, but the space lacks a commercial occupant today. The building has remained in the McGaughy family and Earl’s youngest son, David, is the current owner.
Staffers of the Montevallo High School student newspaper, SPOTLIGHT, around 1960, pay a visit to Middle Street commercial neighbors, Ottis Bean and Earl McGaughy to leave them copies of the latest edition of the award-winning paper.
Thank you Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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