OUR HISTORY
R.R. STREET & CO. INC.
THE HISTORY OF R.R. STREET & CO. INC.
In 1876, the U.S. was celebrating its centennial, Ulysses S. Grant was serving his second term as President of the United States and Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. That same year, Robert R. Street founded R.R. Street & Company in Chicago, Illinois. Over 140 years later, the history of Street’s reflects many of the significant process and product milestones that have occurred in the professional textile cleaning industry over the past century.
Robert R. Street, an immigrant from Scotland, founds R.R. Street & Co., Inc. in Chicago in 1876. Robert recognized the opportunity presented by the combination of a boom of new textile factories in the midwest combined with Chicago’s vast centralized rail and transportation hub. The company starts as a catalog business that offered everything a textile factory might need: from pulleys and conveyors to bobbins and fine imported dyes. Street’s was soon distributing throughout the U.S.
The course of the company changes as it adds an R&D department that develops improved dyes for linen manufacturing and for a newly born industry, professional cleaning and dyeing. Street’s soon imports the first drycleaning soap into the U.S. then later formulates some of the first drycleaning stain removal chemicals in the U.S. and an improved drycleaning detergent that becomes the standard for decades. The company weathers the difficulties of the First World War.
Stoddard Solvent replaces more flammable solvents. Street’s launches early industry educational efforts. Street’s develops the very first filter for drycleaning and develops detergents and stain removal product for the new process, including PYRATEX®, the industry’s most dependable POG for over 100 years. The drycleaning industry begins to grow, substantially, and Street’s begins selling drycleaning products nationally through appointed distributors. The great depression hits. The textile mill business fades away, but drycleaning, and Street’s survive.
The company leads industry war bond and drum recycling drives during World War II. War time shortages bring new product innovation, like STREETEX®, that helps keep cleaners running, despite war time rationing. After the war, Street’s R&D department conducts groundbreaking research on conductivity and micelle formulation, leading to a streak of innovations: STATICOL ®, the first anti-static drycleaning detergent, which revolutionizes the formulation and manufacture of drycleaning detergents; The two -gun spray spotting system which changed the way cleaners perform spotting; and, most significantly, the “Strong Soap”, or “Charge System” as we now know it, and the Electronic Conductivity Control Unit (ECCU) which completely changed how cleaning was done and how drycleaning machinery was designed.
Continuing its foundational belief in education, Street’s sponsors drycleaner scholarships for DLI ’s (then called NID) intensive training classes and technical support hotlines. In doing so, Street’s originated the concept of Allied Trades sponsorship of scholarships to advance industry education. Street’s recognizes the potential in cartridge filtration over powder filtration and opens a dedicated manufacturing plant for cartridges of the highest quality. Soon Puritan cartridges become the industry standard. Industry favorites, StreePRO® and StreeTAN®, make their debut. Street’s expands distribution beyond North America.
The company develops FABRICOL®, a truly innovative formulation bringing a wider range of detergent benefits to injected “soap to each load” processes. Leading the way in wetcleaning, Street’s introduces the Hydrocare™ line of modern wetcleaning chemicals. Devour® and STEAM DRAGON™ are introduced. Street’s plays a key role in industry planning, legislative, and educational initiatives like Vision 2000, Responsible Fabricare, and F.L.A.R.E. Street’s founds a research professorship at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. The purpose is “to increase mankind’s knowledge, better our existence, and allow informed judgments about chemicals to be made”. Over 25 years later, the professorship holder continues to meet that goal with breakthroughs in our understanding of cellular mechanics. Street’s establishes Korean Language Program to help meet the needs of the growing community of Korean-American drycleaning plant owners.
Street’s introduces new water rinseable, California VOC products WetDry™ and Pyratex® LV to meet the needs of professional wetcleaners and the requirements of state VOC regulations. Utilizing the latest advances in wet care chemistry and process design, the company launches an advanced new wetcleaning line, H2PRO, and the customizable FLEX™ commercial laundry and cleaning line. Most significantly, Street’s acquires the operations of Adco Products, LLC, bringing favorite brands like Wetspo into the Street’s family, and the consolidation of the Adco, Laidlaw, Puritan and Street’s brands under one umbrella. Street’s continues its educational initiatives with Street’s Academy, encompassing live training seminars and streaming educational videos.