The Quick Clean Sign: A Small Loss in Petaluma’s Commercial History

For years, I walked past the Quick Clean sign at 214 Western Avenue in Petaluma almost daily. Something about it always caught my eye—perhaps the distinctive curly “tails” on the Q and A. Beyond mere familiarity, the sign had become a small constant in my routine, a tiny landmark that anchored my daily path. That all came to an abrupt end this past week when the sign vanished without ceremony.

On the afternoon of July 8th, the sign was still there, weathered but intact. By 9 AM on July 9th, it had disappeared entirely.

I had initially planned to use this sign as an example of how vintage commercial signage often outlasts the businesses they once advertised. Property owners frequently leave signs from the 1960s or earlier in place long after the occupants have moved on. These older signs likely don’t meet current sign codes, but as long as they remain untouched, they can stay. Any replacement would probably need to be smaller under today’s more restrictive regulations. There’s also the practical matter of cost — creating new signage and removing the old comes at a price. Keeping existing signs allows property owners to potentially repurpose them later.

Unfortunately, the Quick Clean sign won’t be joining the ranks of Petaluma’s surviving vintage signage. I don’t know its fate—perhaps it’s in a landfill, stored somewhere, or destined for eBay.

My fascination with this particular sign deepened when I found a photograph in the Sonoma County Library’s digital collection. The image shows the sign’s more prominent past: it was once mounted on a pole in what is now the parking lot of the Stockhome restaurant at the corner of Western Avenue and Liberty Street, and it rotated.

When Mr. and Mrs. Richard Pounds opened the Quick Clean Center in 1962, the neighborhood was crowded with cleaning services: Goree Cleaners at 27 Western Avenue, Tip Top Cleaners at 117 Western Avenue, Petaluma Launderette at 105 Western Avenue, Lace House Laundry at 128 Liberty Street, U-Do-It Laundry at 125 Keller Street, and Deluxe Cleaners at 145 Keller Street. In such a competitive market, an eye-catching rotating sign—likely internally lit—was a modern way to draw in customers.

The business changed ownership in the early 1980s when David and Emily Chu bought Petaluma Quick Clean. This might have been when the sign lost its pole and ability to rotate, then was attached to the front façade of the cleaners. It was probably also when the plastic or acrylic sheet on this two-sided sign was replaced and the lettering was slightly redesigned.

The Chu’s story, told by Jennifer Bard in the Petaluma Argus Courier, is truly remarkable. Rather than try to summarize the couple’s extraordinary journey, I have shared the July 20, 1983, article here.

By 2019, the cleaners had closed permanently. According to Petaluma Argus Courier reporter Yousef Baig, a significant environmental cleanup followed. With that work now finished, the long-vacant storefront finally has a tenant—X’Core, a Pilates studio.

I had hoped X’Core might find a creative way to repurpose the Quick Clean sign, or perhaps give the frame a fresh coat of paint while preserving this small piece of Petaluma’s commercial history. The coexistence of old and new can add character to a neighborhood, creating visual layers that reflect the passage of time and the evolution of commerce.

Instead, we’ve lost another fragment of the city’s evolving streetscape. While progress is inevitable, and I’m very pleased to see this storefront occupied, with each vanished sign represents a small erasure of the stories that shaped our community’s identity. The Quick Clean sign, with its distinctive lettering and rotating past, was one of those stories, now relegated to a single photograph in a digital archive.