The smell of pressed fabric and solvents fills the air at Manhattan Cleaners & Hat Works. Behind the counter, machines hum steadily as workers restore clothes to a crisp clean. Framed photographs line the walls—family portraits, celebrity customers, decades of Kansas City history captured in black and white.
A customer walks in with a vintage fedora. Another drops off dress shirts for the week. The phone rings with questions about dress cleaning. This is old-school service in an age of strip mall convenience.
“If you can wear it, we can clean it,” says owner Michael King, reciting the family motto that has guided the business for 90 years.
Historic Black-owned Business
Manhattan Cleaners opened in 1935 when King’s parents, James and Martha King, started the original shop at 22nd and Vine in KC’s historic jazz district. The family built a network of cleaners throughout the neighborhood’s thriving Black business corridor.
King, now 80, took over operations when his father needed heart surgery. The business moved to its current location at 5847 Swope Parkway in 1966 and has served Southeast Kansas City families for nearly six decades.
“I’ve seen generations of people in my time working at the shop, the young become the old, and then the old go away,” says King. “Heck, I’ve seen them come in young and then next thing you know their grandchildren are coming in.”
Customers Ask Him to Stay Open
Last November, King announced plans for his retirement. He was ready to close the doors after decades of marathon work weeks. The plan was simple: give customers a couple of weeks’ notice, settle accounts, and end nearly a century of family business.
Word spread quickly on social media that Manhattan Cleaners was closing. Customers panicked about losing their trusted dry cleaner.
“I have loyal customers so lot of people were asking ‘What are we gonna do? Where are we gonna go?’” King remembered. “A few people said we were ‘pillars of the community,’ and I found that flattering.[a]”
Not everyone was opposed to King’s retirement plans. Sally Yates, King’s niece who has worked at the shop for three years, had mixed feelings about the closure announcement.
“I was kind of on the fence about [closing or staying open],” says Yates. “On one hand he’s been a staple in the community and I’d love to see this place make it to 100 years. At the same time though, Uncle deserves to retire and travel a little bit and relax.”
New Arrangement Give Business New Life
Several Manhattan Cleaner’s employees had their own ideas upon hearing of the potential closure. A group led by longtime staff members approached King with a proposal to keep the business running.
The staff convinced King to let them take over daily operations. They handle the cleaning, pressing, and customer service while King manages finances and focuses on his specialty—hat restoration.
“I’m still their hat, man,” King said. “That’s my expertise.”
The arrangement has breathed new life into the business. King now works a few hours a day instead of the 80-hour weeks of his younger years. He says his employees have proven they can maintain the quality and service that built the shop’s reputation.
Business had slowed when word spread that Manhattan Cleaners was closing, but customers are returning as they learn the shop remains open.
“Once they realized we didn’t close, customers were coming in here with big bags of clothes,” says Yates. “Shoot, they definitely keep me busy.” [b]
Full-Service, In–House Cleaners
Everything happens on-site at Manhattan Cleaners. The nine-person team cleans clothes, restores shoes, and blocks hats using equipment and techniques passed down through generations. Only leather goods are sent elsewhere.
The business survived the Great Depression, World War II, and the COVID-19 pandemic without closing once. When King was hospitalized twice with bacterial meningitis—each time for three months—the doors stayed open.
“We’ve never closed in the past 90 years,” King says. “Through the depression, through World War II, we never closed.”
KC’s Oldest Continuous Operating Black-owned Business
The shop’s walls tell the story of KC’s changing landscape. Photographs show the original 22nd and Vine location in the heart of the city’s jazz district, where musicians like Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie lived and played. King remembers making deliveries to jazz legends staying at the Street Hotel when segregation kept them from downtown accommodations.
The family business expanded throughout the historic district before consolidating at the Swope Parkway location. King’s father worked for a hat cleaning business on 12th Street before the owners helped him start his own shop with equipment and encouragement.
“My dad worked for this Jewish gentleman cleaning and blocking hats, and he’d shine shoes,” says King. “They liked him so well that they gave him some hat equipment, some blocks, and a press machine to start out.”
Today, Manhattan Cleaners stands as one of KC’s oldest continuously operating Black-owned businesses. King’s transition to a more hands-off approach that allows employee autonomy and stability has preserved the legacy businesses while allowing him to step back.
King Still Hopes for a Buyer
King still hopes to find a buyer who will maintain the shop’s name and dry cleaning tradition. Without children to pass the business to or a formal succession plan, he’s looking for someone who shares his commitment to quality service.
“I would love somebody to buy the business, keep it as a dry cleaners, and keep the name,” King says. “I would like to have Manhattan Cleaners continue for 100 years, but frankly, I’d entertain all kinds of offers.”
For now, the arrangement works for everyone. King gets a well-earned semi-retirement while staying connected to the business he’s spent his life building. His employees have job security and the chance to carry forward traditions they’ve helped maintain.
“I really think that I’ve done what I was supposed to do,” King says, reflecting on his parents’ legacy. “Biblically speaking, I’ve done right by them, keeping this going for 90 years.”
The steam continues to rise from the presses. Customers still walk through the door seeking the personal service of perhaps KC’s oldest Black-owned business. And in a city where places come and go, Manhattan Cleaners remains—a testament to family dedication and community loyalty that spans nearly a century.