In 1957, a man by the name of Don Riley opened a One Hour Martinizing franchise located at 113 W. State Street. Mr. Riley passed away soon after this and his wife sold the business in 1961 to Jim Menke. About eighteen months later, the business was sold to Don and Louanne Severson.
The Severson's began to call it Geneva One Hour Martinizing when they bought it and eventually dropped the  franchise calling it Geneva One Hour Cleaners. Soon after that it became Geneva Cleaners.
In 1968, the Severson's purchased the current Geneva Cleaners site. It was the old First National Bank building at 130 W. State St. and had been sitting empty for a year. They moved the business and rented out the upstairs and downstairs to help make the mortgage payments.
In 1975, an old building on 2nd Street next to Geneva Cleaners was torn down and the Severson's purchased the vacant lot on which it stood. In 1988, the 128 W. State building was acquired when Nort Averill (Averill Electric) closed his business.
Over the last decade, Don and Louanne's sons, Eric and Scot Severson have continued to serve their community. As Geneva Cleaners celebrates 50 years of history in 2007, they will also be looking forward to keeping the traditions of family style customer service and community involvement ... because caring counts and experience matters.
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