Longtime dry cleaner closes doors

Starla Pointer/News-Register##Doreen Wright, seated, and her children, Allan Wright and Patti Jeanfaivre, have closed Alpine Dry Cleaners in McMinnville. Doreen and the late Jack Wright started the business in 1980. Alpine did business in the shopping center now occupied by Goodwill and other businesses until 1992, then moved into the 19th and Baker location.

After 45 years in business, Alpine Dry Cleaners has closed.

It was one of the last three dry cleaners in McMinnville, which had five when Jack and Doreen Wright opened the business in 1980. The number of dry cleaners has declined statewide, from a peak of 550 in 1995 to the current 111 — or 110, with the closure of Alpine.

In recent years, the place has been operated by the Wright’s children, Allan Wright and his younger sister, Patti Jeanfaivre.

Allan, who also worked for the old Combs Market for years, has been working at Alpine for 35 years. Patti has been there for 33.

They said they have enjoyed being part of the family enterprise, but it’s time for them to retire.

Patti and Allan’s parents graduated from McMinnville High School — Jack in 1943 and Doreen in 1947. They met on a blind date.

The couple decided to open a dry cleaning business in 1980 after both had several other careers.

He had managed the West Coast Aviation terminal in North Bend, Oregon, then in Sacramento, California, and Seattle, Washington. He later ran a quarry and dump trucks.

She had held jobs at Oregon Mutual Insurance, Rutherford’s Ben Franklin store and the pharmacy at the old hospital on Fifth Street downtown.

In 1980, they considered buying a hardware store. Then they found Alpine Dry Cleaners, which was a cooperative group with individually owned outlets in Salem, Beaverton and other places.

Before opening their own Alpine, the couple trained at the Beaverton store. They spent two weeks working really hard for no pay, Doreen recalled.

On their final training day, she was eager to go home, but the owner pointed to a pile of clothes that needed pressing and told her to finish up. She didn’t want to, but did so —and spent many more long days in her own shop in subsequent years.

“I pressed from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.” many days, Doreen said, who’s now retired, on a rare recent visit to the store.

Her handmade Barbie doll clothes, which she has been making since her daughter was little, were still on display up front on the final day of business. She has been known for making and selling the clothes over the years.

Doreen and Jack, who died 30 years ago, opened Alpine Dry Cleaners in the shopping center now occupied by Goodwill, Harbor Freight and other businesses. In 1992, they moved to their current location at 140 N.W. 19th St.

The site once was a Mexican restaurant where Allan and Patti remember eating years ago.

To make it over as a dry cleaner, Allan took down several non-load-bearing walls to create larger, open areas for the cleaning machines, pressers and other equipment. He also moved the front entrance so it faced 19th Street, rather than being at the side.

The family owns the building, which also holds a beauty shop, All Spruced Up. The salon remains open, although the building is now for sale.

During the early years of Alpine Dry Cleaners, the shop cleaned coats, suits, dresses, drapes and other textile items. They also cleaned uniforms, including many for local flight attendants.

It didn’t do shirts, though. Doreen recalled a young man coming in pleading with her to wash and iron a white shirt for him, so she made an exception.

“They spread the word, and we had to get a washing machine just for shirts,” she said. “I ironed 500 shirts a month on an ironing board until we finally got a shirt press.”

While the dry cleaning shop once served both men and women about equally, Patti said it has handled a majority of men’s clothes in recent years. But they’ve also seen an increase in the number of younger customers, who may not enjoy cleaning their own high-end clothing or be able to.

“Some people don’t want to deal with pressing,” Patti said, adding that “drying keeps clothes nicer longer.”

It also is better at getting out many stains, especially grease- and oil-based stains, she said. For some clothing, such as formal wear with sequins or beads, dry cleaners could use spot cleaning, instead of the entire garments.

Like other dry cleaners, Alpine started out using a cleaning process that uses a chemical instead of water. But it switched to “Green Earth,” a solution that uses liquified sand instead of harsher products, years ago.

The gentler solution can be used on some clothing labeled “do not dry clean,” too, Allan said.

Customers appreciated the more environmentally-friendly techniques, he said. It brought in new customers as well.

They also appreciated being able to bring in clothes for alterations, which Patti often did at home on evenings and weekends.

Alpine and other dry cleaners were busy until the Covid pandemic, Patti said. But the pandemic reduced their business greatly. That led them to shorten their hours; they continued with the abbreviated schedule after the economy began to recover.

Over the years, the Wrights have had many long-term employees who’ve helped make the business a success. Ann Shular, for instance, worked there until she was in her late 70s. Linda Bergstrom was there for 15 years, and her daughter, Carla, worked at Alpine, as well. Amanda Cleary was with the company for many years, right up to the closing day on Friday.

Doreen Wright also retired when she was in her 70s, two decades ago. Now Patti and Allan are nearing that age, so they finally made the decision to close in early January.

“I’ve cried a lot this month,” Patti said on her next-to-last day.

They will miss their customers, many of whom have been coming in for years, they said.

“We’ve been through marriages, births, deaths with these people. They are friends, and they got to be family,” Patti said.

She recalled one little boy who would come in with his mother. The Wright’s family dog, Scruffy, usually stayed in the back of the shop, but he’d come running out to visit with the youngster. That little boy now has kids of his own, Patti said.

She added, “They’ve told me about their lives, where they’ve traveled over the years. I’ve lived vicariously through them.”