Across the highway from SHENANIGANS and the FRAME GALLERY, tucked a bit behind the SEWANEE MARKET, is a new restaurant, LUMIERE, opened in late 2022 under David Williams' ownership, in what had earlier been other eateries and even earlier the SEWANEE STEAM LAUNDRY. In fact, this location has supported a building in the community since 1870, with over half its years devoted to laundry services.
photo by Mary O'Neill
In 1899, the University started the SEWANEE STEAM LAUNDRY in the Charles Hayes building, a stone structure dating to 1870. Laundry equipment was on the first floor, machinery in the basement, and the MASONIC LODGE and EASTERN STAR occupied the second floor. The building stood at the railroad tracks, facing them and the old highway to Cowan. It was just west of where the SEWANEE MARKET is now, and just north of where the ‘new’ steam laundry building is. About 30 people, mostly women, worked there, and a delivery truck picked up and delivered laundry to the University (the hospital and students at the college, seminary, and military academy) and to residents in Sewanee, Cowan, Monteagle, and Tracy City.
The laundry building was destroyed in an early morning fire on March 20, 1951. Almost immediately, plans were made for a new fireproof building at the same location. University employees headed by stonemason Will Campbell made the cinder blocks on site. The building was finished in September, but a delay in delivery by the supplier of the equipment moved the opening date to January 28, 1952.
Cecil Myers continued from the old laundry as manager until 1957, when he retired and, with his daughter Ina M. Myers, purchased the dry cleaning equipment and moved it to the building where LOCALS is now. Bufford McBee replaced Myers, and in 1959 James William Sherrill was appointed manager. Sherrill continued until the laundry workers ceased being University employees in May 1970.
For many years, the laundry had been kept in business largely by the requirement that students use the laundry; about 5% of the students’ tuition went to the laundry. Female students entered the college in 1969, and their requirements for laundry differed from what the males needed. Coin-operated washers and dryers were put in the women’s dormitories and some of the others if dorm construction permitted. Phil Syler and Charles Roberson of Decherd purchased the Steam Laundry in 1970, but business declined severely in 1972 when students had the option of choosing to use the laundry. From September 1972 until about 1984, when the Sewanee Steam Laundry ceased to operate, Ray Moore of Snow White Cleaners in Tullahoma owned the laundry business. Bill Smith bought the building in 1989 from the University and moved his VILLAGE CLEANERS to there from the building where LOCALS is now.
Partitions were added to the building, and for a number of years a Laundromat occupied a central area, while Smith’s dry cleaning business with the cleaning equipment was in the northwest corner of the building. Much of the space south of these areas was used for University storage.
- John Bordley's account.
An article in the Purple Sewanee states that John Castleberry’s house was the first one built in the village. His house was made of logs and was first located where the post office once stood. Later this house was moved across the railroad and became part of the larger house. The logs were covered with boards. This house is the only one recorded as still standing in the Sewanee Village after the Civil War. Old timers say the Castleberry house and William Tomlinson’s house on Kentucky Avenue are the oldest houses in the town of Sewanee. The Castleberry house is located behind what was the laundry on the right side. In the 1915 Cap and Gown, James Castleberry was listed as Mgr of the laundry.
The more recent history of the Steam Laundry building has involved adaptive reuse, with Keri Moser's creations IVY WILD and later OCTI PI using the north half as evening restaurants. The southern portion has been at different times a special events space, an apartment, and an Asian fusion dining experience called CROSSROADS before becoming an art studio space.
Photos courtesy of John Bordley