JERRY PERSON -- A Look Back

A while back, we looked at White’s Laundry, a Huntington Beach

institution that cleaned the clothes of the city’s residents for many

years. This week we’ll look at the man who started the scrubbing.

The man behind the laundry business was Solomon Harris White.

He was born in New Straitsville, Ohio, on July 14, 1879 -- one of six

children. He had two brothers, Thomas and William, and three sisters,

Ethel, Gertrude and Hannah.

Shortly after White was born, the family moved to Joliet, Ill., where

White attended school. When White was 15, he went to work with his

brother in a local laundry. During the next six years, he worked at

several Joliet laundries.

On February 8, 1905, he married Martha Brehm in Joliet.

White first came to Los Angeles in 1906, when he went to work for the

California Laundry Co. He later left that laundry and went to work for

K.E. Morgan at the Los Angeles Laundry Co. The Whites moved to Salt Lake

City to manage a laundry that Morgan owned there.

They stayed four years before returning to California.

The couple bought a home in Pasadena, where they lived for several years.

He worked in Pasadena as an engineer for the American Laundry Machine Co.

The Whites next moved to Spokane, Wash., where White worked as a sales

manager for Armour & Co. But not liking the weather, the couple returned

to Pasadena to live and became a partner in the American Laundry Company.

In 1921, White bought the Troy Laundry in Huntington Beach at 111 First

St., and they moved down here from Pasadena.

They lived at 1124 Pacific Coast Highway, then known as Ocean Avenue, and

later moved to 110 Pacific Coast Highway.

White enjoyed being the treasurer for the Huntington Beach Chamber of

Commerce for many years. He would later serve the chamber in other

capacities.

He was also a member of the Huntington Beach Businessmen’s Assn. and

served as its president. He was a member of our Masonic Lodge and a

member of the Santa Ana Elks Lodge.

By 1933, White had moved his laundry to 620 Main St., where he continued

his business.

He sold his business in 1938 because of an automobile accident that

injured him and killed his daughter Edith.

On Feb. 3, 1944, the people of Huntington Beach paid tribute to White for

all of the work he had done for the city. During the banquet, the Chamber

of Commerce gave White a lifetime membership.

A week later, he and Martha celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary.

That evening, on Feb. 8, Sol White left us forever and now remains a

permanent member of Huntington Beach’s golden history.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach 92615.