Brown's Garage 1920s

Brown's Garage is located on the Maryland side of town in spite of the ink blotter says.  The building still stands on First Street.  It is another example of the molded concrete block construction that was popular in this period.  In the 1920’s Frank Brown had a Ford Motor Car business and garage in this building on First Street between East Street and State Street.  The building was built in 1916.   Sometime about 1929 he went out of business and that building sit empty for a while until 1940 when it was used by a produce broker. Later in June of 1946 Luther “Luke” Mitchell started a dry cleaning and laundry plant in the Frank Brown building. The business went under the name “The Elite Cleaners”. He had previously had the Spotless Cleaners in Salisbury but in 1942 he was drafted and he had to sell the business. In the Army he was assigned to the Quarter Master Laundry Service, so the man had a lot of cleaning experience.

It is unclear at what time it happened but at some point he appears to have moved his business to the laundry (Nu Way) next to St Stephens Church on the Delaware side of town.

The Frank Brown Building stayed vacant a while and then a used future store, Furniture Plus, moved in it in the 1980’s.