City's first dry cleaners going strong after 85 years

By SCOTT TAYLOR HARTZELL

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- History has taught M.C. Rogers III that "there will always be people who don't want to wash their shirts at home."

Rogers Dry Cleaners, the first concern of its kind in the city, is 85 years old now.

"It's taken a lot of sweat and a lot of hard work," said Rogers III, 53, the company president. "The business is labor-intensified."

In 1916, Rogers Dry Cleaners introduced the first Hoffman Steam Press in Florida, scaring away competition until 1926. "It's a true success story of a local business that kept going," said A.C. "Toby" Krayer Jr., retired CNS National Bank president.

At age 13, Mitchell Calvin Rogers Sr. came here with his family in about 1898 after a freeze destroyed their Clearwater orange grove. His parents operated Rogers Boarding House, which later became the Central Hotel.

In 1910, while studying business in Jacksonville, Rogers and his new bride, Abbie, established a "pressing club."

"Mitchell had a horse and wagon and he'd pick up clothes along a regular route once or twice a week," Abbie Rogers said. The couple sponge-cleaned and pressed the garments before returning them.

Rogers returned here in 1916 to establish the city's first dry cleaners. "We opened a little hole-in-the-wall at 529 Central Ave. in September," Abbie Rogers recalled. "We had two children."

One year later, they were debt-free and had banked $500. They paid $1,600 for a cottage and land where 17th Street met an unpaved Central Avenue.

Mary Rogers Dolson, Rogers Sr.'s niece, once said that historian Walter Fuller was her favorite patron. Babe Ruth, she added, would jump "on the counter in his knickers to chit-chat."

Rogers Sr. labored through the Depression and World War II, dyeing, steaming, pressing and delivering clothes. His wife handled business matters.

"Abbie was in charge," said Ollie Mae Jones, 84, an employee from 1946 to 1973. "She was the big lady."

Abbie Rogers, who died in 1981, was the heartbeat of the cleaners until the late 1950s.

In 1950, Rogers Sr. passed the business to his son, M.C. Rogers Jr. Calvin, as he was known, also inherited his father's love of dog racing. He raced his dogs in Boston and at Derby Lane and owned Rogers Greyhound Kennels.

Calvin, a Florida State University graduate, was "smart, fun and friendly" at the plant, said his daughter, Laura Rogers, 62, an employee for 32 years and, in her last few years, the manager.

It was tough watching his father, Calvin, work so hard and preside over the St. Petersburg Dry Cleaners Association, Rogers III said. "(Dad) retired and died about a year and a half later (1978)."

Four years after assuming control in 1976, Rogers III absorbed Johnny's Cleaners at 2018 Fourth St. N and expanded. "I needed a challenge," he said. "Fourth Street was the mall of St. Petersburg."

The cleaners then had seven employees, handled about 75 shirts daily and did about $175,000 in business annually, said Rogers III, wearing a knit shirt featuring the company logo: "The Cleaners That Satisfy."

Today the concern has 24 employees, cleans about 800 shirts daily and has increased its annual business tenfold -- 90 percent of which streams in through the drive-through.

"You've got to get better before you get bigger," and we're getting bigger, said M.C. Rogers IV, who joined his father's business four years ago.

The Fourth Street plant will have a $150,000 renovation completed by March. The improvements will increase storage by 500 square feet, office space by 400 square feet and work area by 1,000 square feet.

"Had to be sometime," Rogers III said, "or we would have had clothes in a trailer out back." The Central Avenue location, which closed last March, may be remodeled into a smaller plant.

Rogers IV, the cleaner's general manager and vice president, is proud to be part of a business in its fourth generation.

"I wanted to work alongside my father," said Rogers IV, 26. "It's kind of hard not to be interested in (the business) when it's part of your family history."

-- Scott Taylor Hartzell can be reached at hartzel@gate.net.

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