First Lewando's Building, cleaning and dyeing business established 1828. Sign at top of building reads "French Dyer, Steam Scourer". Lewando?s French Dying and Cleansing Establishment cleanses and dyes all kinds of fabrics and materials used as clothing or as draperies, upholstery or rugs for floors. The Laundry was fitted with Empire Laundry Machines from the Watertown. Lewando?s could turn out about 4500 collars and cuffs, 500 shirts each day or 10,000 pairs of gloves dyed a month or repair 5,000 shiny woolen garments in a year. During a year one to two hundred employees would worked according to the season. Lewando?s used six artesian wells and much of the Watertown Water Supply Company?s supply. A boiler of 120 and two forty-five horse-power supplied the motive-power and to furnish steam for heating and dying purposes. Three steam engines of six, eight and ten horse-power operated the laundry. By 1893, Lewando?s claimed to be the largest laundry in the United States.
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