After 57 years in the family’s dry-cleaning business, Debbie Martitz has heard some unusual requests.
For example: Can you dry clean a bra? Yes. How about sneakers? Um, no.
“I put them in the washing machine,” Martitz advised.
Then there was the time when she was in high school when a customer came into the business after a car accident.
“There were blood stains everywhere [inside the car],” she recalled. “My dad cleaned it up.”
And the most challenging part of being in the dry-cleaning business? She answers without missing a beat: “Everything’s pretty easy for me because I’ve been doing it for so long.”
Depending on how you do the math, that beginning date ranges from 2005, when she took over Hope Cleaners, to as far back as 1967, when she started working for her grandparents. Hope Cleaners has been in the family since her grandfather, Warren Luther, launched it in 1930 at the dawn of the Great Depression.
“My grandfather had worked for a dry cleaner, then went off on his own. It was very busy, I remember. He bought the building I’m in now,” Martitz said.
Since Hope moved to its red brick outpost on a busy stretch of Warren Avenue in East Providence, it has been a local landmark with its clientele. Some have been using Hope’s services for 60 years, traveling from across the state.
One East Greenwich customer recently told Martitz, “Debbie, I must really love you because since the Washington Bridge closure, the traffic has been terrible.”
With the opening of the bridge’s additional lanes, travel from the West Bay is easier now, she said.
Martitz grew up in the Riverside section of East Providence, the second-oldest of five girls.
“We lived near Crescent Park. I could lie in bed and watch the Ferris wheel. I rode my bike to work. While other kids were at the beach, I was here,” she said. “I was mature. I did babysitting and house cleaning. I made a dollar an hour. I was rich.”
She graduated from East Providence High School in 1972 but skipped college.
“I wasn’t good at doing homework,” she said.
She married at age 18, but the marriage didn’t last. Then in 1978, she met her second husband, Arthur Martitz.
He was the love of her life.
“He was a customer,” Martitz said. “He kept asking me out and finally he tricked me. He wanted to know what I was doing on Saturday. It happened to be the anniversary of my marriage to my ex.”
Arthur Martitz died in 2016.
Working for her father, Paul Luther, wasn’t always easy for Martitz.
“He was a tough cookie,” she said.
In fact, the only time she hasn’t been at Hope Cleaners was during a short period early on.
“My dad fired me. I’d been bagging the clothes and he started yelling. My mom begged me to come back,” Martitz said.
She not only came back; she eventually took over in 2005.
“None of my sisters were interested,” she said.
While still operating as Hope Cleaners, the corporate name of the business is now Debbie Luther Martitz Inc. And she works solo behind the counter, greeting customers and brushing and de-pilling sweaters.
“I can take a mess and make it look brand new,” she said.
Martitz checks if customers want starch in their shirts, dispenses treats to their pups and offers advice.
“I like talking with people. I have the nicest customers. We talk about restaurants and get the gossip,” she said.
Over the years, there have been some memorable situations.
“One of my grandmother’s clients was the president of the now-defunct Old Stone Bank. He used to bring in his three-piece tweed suits,” Martitz said.
And there was the arrival of the dreaded polyester suit in the 1970s.
“My dad freaked out when polyester came in,” she said. “He thought people would start throwing their suits in the washing machine. It didn’t happen.”
Although dry-cleaning techniques haven’t changed dramatically, Martitz says she stays on top of advances while an associate does the actual cleaning and laundering.
Her commitment has been recognized. Last year, Hope Cleaners was named family-owned small business of the year in Rhode Island by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Martitz and 12 other local small companies and owners were feted at an awards luncheon.
“I was on cloud nine at the lunch,” she said. “I was waving to everyone like I was on a parade float.”
