EDGEBROOK — The story of Glad Cleaners' 75 years in business is one of hard work, family and longevity.
Original owner Ivor Fitzgerald opened the shop — then called Edgebrook Cleaners — on Kinzua Avenue in 1939 when he was 38 years old. The son of dirt-poor sharecroppers in rural Missouri, his first job in the business was as a 12-year-old, sweeping the floors in the back of a St. Louis cleaners in exchange for a place to sleep.
He learned pressing, sewing, stitching and tailoring as the years went by, and passed that knowledge to his son, Dan, who bought Edgebrook Cleaners from his dad in 1969 when he was 22.
Justin Breen discusses the family friendly atmosphere at Glad Cleaners:
Dan Fitzgerald ran the shop, which moved from Kinzua to two different spots on Devon Avenue before migrating to its current location at 6412 N. Central Ave. in 1952, until 2007. That's when he sold it to his stepson and current owner, Robert Matijevic, who's been a Glad Cleaners employee since 1979, when he was a 15-year-old sophomore at Notre Dame College Prep.
"I started here cleaning weeds outside the building," said Matijevic, an Edgebrook native who owns Glad Cleaners with his wife, Angela.
Like his predecessors, Matijevic works long hours. He makes an 80-mile round-trip commute from Elgin six days a week, spending 12-plus hours a day at the humid cleaners.
He calls Fitzgerald "Dad." Matijevic's own father died in a car accident about a year before his first day at Glad Cleaners; his mother began dating Fitzgerald, of Park Ridge, after meeting him while she was a customer.
Fitzgerald said there was never any doubt he was going to keep the business in the family.
"It's third generation, and you're going to be very hard-pressed to find any dry-cleaning business that's third generation," Fitzgerald said. "And I knew that Rob wanted to succeed me, and he knew he wanted to succeed me."
Said Bob Madiar, director of the Edgebrook Chamber of Commerce: "Glad Cleaners has been a pillar of Edgebrook’s business community and has served Edgebrook residents for many decades."
In the last three-quarters of a century, the business changed locations, became a nine-employee operation and added more services like on-site cleaning. The name even switched in 1992, when Fitzgerald wanted to consolidate Edgebrook Cleaners with another spot he owned in Gladstone Park called Glad Cleaners. The name Glad, which stood for "Guaranteed Laundry And Dry Cleaning," only stuck because the original sign didn't have enough space for the word "Gladstone."
But consistencies have remained, from the desk in Matijevic's office that was manned previously by Ivor and Dan Fitzgerald, to the tailoring of Olga Kolovos, an Edgebrook/Glad Cleaners employee since 1978 who always has a tape measure around her neck during work hours.
"This is my first boss; that is my second boss," said Kolovos, as she pointed to Fitzgerald and then Matijevic. "I've been to their families' weddings, funerals, everything. We are like family."
Kolovos and Angela Matijevic said treating the customers like family has been the No. 1 reason for Glad Cleaners' success. Angela Matijevic said her husband will routinely carry customers' clothes to their car, even in rainy weather.
"This is not just a business to us," Angela Matijevic said. "It's our neighborhood. People are in a hurry, and we want to give the best customer service we can."
The customers have given back, occasionally leaving collectibles like swords, crosses, shields and even a taxidermied fruit bat for Matijevic, who proudly showcases the presents on his office wall.
In describing the wall art, Matijevic also reflected on his business surviving for 75 years.
"It's kind of cool, isn't it?" he said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
