The Monarch Laundry Building

153-155 Park Street, also known as the The Monarch Laundry building was most likely built in the early 1920s. It was designed by the architect F.H.Peckwell as a furrier and storage vault for the Monarch Laundry company. Monarch Laundry was a local cleaner, furrier, and laundrist established in 1898, at first on Derby Ave. This structure is especially intriguing because of its Art Deco detailing on the main facade.With little known about the architect and his aesthetic impetus for his design, one can hypothesize that the Art Deco touches were part of the architectural representation of the particular image Monarch Laundry wished to portray of themselves. Representing streamlined efficiency, modern technology, achievement and the machine age, Art Deco was the perfect style to represent the ideals of a modern and entrepreneurial laundry company. Monarch occupied the building until around 1968 when a graphic arts and photography studio moved in. In 1985, the building was almost transformed into a Sun Tan Center, but this vision was never realized, to many locals' dismay. The building rests derelict today.

Quick Facts

Permit No: 10870 feb. 17, 1916

Brick building

Architect: F.H. Peckwell

cost: 4000.00

permit no. 20459 March 11, 1938

Owner: Monarch Laundry

altered for office and fur storage

cost: 7,000.00

permit no. 31474 March 28, 1945

owner: Monarch Laundry Inc.

to convert masonry building to fireproof construction

cost: 10,516.00

permit no. 36830 July 8, 1947

owner: Monarch Laundry

erected addition

cost: 9700.00

permit no. 76387 May 9, 1968

owner: Watkins Associated (Graphic arts/ photography)

erected interior non bearing partitiions for graphic art studio

cost: 1500.00

permit no ? 1985

owner: Bruce keeton

seeking special exception for a Sun Tan Center