Before commercial laundries began to advertise in the 1870s, laundry was done at home. By 1888 Ann Arbor steam laundry was the first to use coal-fired power. In 1905 varsity laundry owners H. B. Tenny and Fred Lantz posed in their doorway at 215-217 South Fourth Avenue with the women who did ironing, mending, and hand touch-up work. the coal man wears a long black coat.