Press Release - America's Best Cleaners Affiliate Provides
"Hall of Fame" Service to Baltimore Sports Museum

Chevy Chase, MD: America’s Best Cleaners’ Washington, DC affiliate,
Parkway Custom Drycleaning, recently teamed up with Textiles
Conservation Services to clean and conserve two of America’s most
celebrated sports textile treasures for the newly opened Sports Legends
Museum and The Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore.

Parkway Custom Drycleaning, located at 8402 Connecticut Avenue in Chevy
Chase, MD, meticulously hand cleaned both the silk kimono given to
baseball icon Babe Ruth during the 1934 American All-Star tour in Japan,
as well as a handmade Baltimore Orioles banner that dates back to 1895.
The banner was a gift to the team from a fan after the Orioles won the
championship that year.

“What an exciting opportunity to be able to work on Babe Ruth’s favorite
kimono and an 1895 Orioles Banner in my on-going collaboration with
Textiles Conservation Services,” said the owner of Parkway Custom
Drycleaning and an American’s Best Cleaners Advisory Board Member Jon
Simon. “Both pieces were carefully hand cleaned and hand finished due to
their delicate condition and the exacting procedure required in the
treatment of such fragile one-of-a-kind artifacts. We had to treat each
piece in different phases, color testing the dyes and different fabrics,
working on them for hours and then allowing them to air dry completely.”

Parkway Custom Drycleaning worked in conjunction with Julia Brennan of
Textile Conservation Services, www.caringfortextiles.com, on the
project. Brennan, an internationally recognized textile conservator,
oversaw the cleaning and then skillfully executed all the repairs to
both the kimono and the banner. In total, the testing, cleaning and
restoration of these celebrated American artifacts took more than two
months to complete.

“Julia brought her expertise in conservation treatments, while Parkway
provided the wet and dry cleaning capability. Through our combined
skills and efforts, we brought life back into these important artifacts
so that they can be appreciated by generations to come,” said Simon.

“Again Parkway proves they are the best of the best,” said Brennan.
“Jon’s meticulous care, his understanding of fragile irreplaceable
textiles and his wealth of technical knowledge, gives me the confidence
to entrust him with some of the most challenging conservation projects I
ever work on.”

America’s Best Cleaners is a national organization that strives to
locate and recognize the best dry-cleaning establishments in major
metropolitan areas throughout the United States. Affiliates are the
top-performers in the areas of fabric and stain identification, garment
construction, and color fastness.

Members of this organization know how to properly clean and finish
garments, no matter what type of fabric, stains, dyes, construction, or
establishment they may have. After being properly cleaned, every garment
is expertly finished and pressed, thoroughly inspected, and carefully
packaged to ensure a safe return to its client’s closet.

Before a dry cleaner can become a member of the exclusive America’s Best
Cleaners group, it has to meet a number of specific criteria such as
being able to clean and preserve wedding gowns, offer fine apparel
storage, be a full-service cleaner, offer hand-finished service, provide
pick-up and delivery services to home and/or office, have the capacity
to ship anywhere, and offer emergency service.

There are currently 25 accredited America’s Best Cleaners
(www.americasbestcleaners.com) in the country located in cities such as
New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Boston. There’s also an international
affiliate in Paris. In the immediate future, America’s Best Cleaners
hopes to have at least 50 to 60 major Metropolitan Statistical Areas
(MSA) represented.