For December’s City Daily Photo December theme, Waiting, we feature Sno-White Cleaners, located at 511 S. Elam Avenue. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Sno-White Cleaners is a Greensboro institution that has a reputation for being a top-of-the-line dry cleaner. When people mention complicated dry cleaning situations, or needing to clean garments made of costly, fine fabrics, locals quickly comment, “Take it to Sno-White.. it may cost more or be a little bit out of your way, but it’s worth WAITING to take your garment there.”

According to the Better Business Bureau, the shop opened in February 1959. Thirty four years later, in 1993, Sno-White received a NC OWR Grant to improve its operations and to reduce its emissions into the atmosphere. In the business profile, printed in the grant’s final report, it was stated that for the then-newly installed dryers, solvent usage reduction was estimated at 75%. At that time, Lindley Smith was managing the business that had been started by his father, a man who “taught dry cleaning at NC State A & T Univ in Greensboro.”