HANOVER — The dry spell in Upper Valley dry cleaning should soon be over.

New London Cleaners will replace the former Kleen dry cleaners on Lebanon Street in Hanover across from the Black Family Visual Arts Center, filling the need for a dry cleaner service in the college town that suddenly was without one after Kleen closed last month.

The family-owned New London dry cleaner and laundromat signed a lease with Dartmouth College, which owns the building, and will open the drop-off and pick-up location at 25 Lebanon St. beginning next week from Tuesday through Saturday, said owner Jeff Owen, who hasn’t yet set the hours.

“We’ll be up there quick,” said Owen, who has shut down his New London dry cleaner for a week while he installs new equipment to handle the higher volume of items that he expects to come with the opening of a busier, second retail outlet.

“We were a mom-and-pop shop but we’re converting to the big boys,” he said.

Kleen closed its Hanover retail dry cleaning store, along with locations in Lebanon and Claremont, last month, citing the ongoing unprofitability of the business (a West Lebanon location in the Kmart shopping plaza was closed earlier this year). Two weeks after Kleen shuttered its dry cleaning operation, the company also shut down its commercial laundry plant in Lebanon. 

The two closings represented a loss of about 110 jobs and an Upper Valley business that dated back to the 19th century.

New London Cleaners already had been providing a dry cleaning drop-off and pick-up service at River Valley Club off Route 120 in Lebanon, but had to limit it to River Valley members after Kleen closed because of a crush of requests for service.

Owen said he will begin with the Hanover location and see how that goes before committing to a second “drop” location in Lebanon.

“But this gets us into the Upper Valley,” he said. As for prices, shirts will start at $3, he said.

New London Cleaners was acquired by Owen’s father-in-law in 1976 but he and his wife, Missy Owen, have owned and operated the business for the past 30 years, Jeff Owen said. Missy Owen is also a real estate agent in New London.

Since Kleen shut down, the only place in the Lebanon area for the general public to take dry cleaning has been the twice-weekly drop-off and pick up location at Carpet King and Tile below Fogg’s Hardware store on Route 5 in Norwich, which is serviced by a Rutland dry cleaner.

Although demand for dry cleaning services has dropped significantly in recent years because of no-press apparel and the rise of casual dress in the workplace, there remains a demand in the Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center communities where business attire is still sometimes favored.

Kleen’s Hanover location catered to “the college, the hospital, lawyers’ offices, from Hanover, Lyme, Quechee, Lebanon,” said Maria LaQuire, the former manager of Kleen’s retail dry cleaning stores. “It was the busiest of the four” former Kleen retail dry cleaning locations, she said.

John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.

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