The Horstman family started the business in Du Quoin and moved into a new building in Carbondale in December of 1925. The original Carbondale building was on West Monroe Street, which is behind the current public library, according to an issue of The Daily Independent published on Thursday, Dec. 24, 1925.
Under the ownership of Ned Farris, the business would move in November of 1964 to 303 S. University Ave., according to an issue of The Southern Illinoisan published on Sunday, Sept. 6, 1964, where it stood until its closure on March 22, 2026.
In 1965, the business would enter the hands of the Kirk family. “That is when my dad bought into the business,” Jon Kirk, the current owner, said. One of the few remnants of the original location is a brick in the ground in front of the current business that reads “Horstman’s.”
“That was from the original Horstman’s, just up the street…It was one of the few things that got moved over,” Kirk said.
He said his father kept the Horstman’s name since “it was established,” and that he gets mistakenly or intentionally called a Horstman “all the time.”
Kirk started working at the dry cleaning business in 1977 when he was in junior high school. He would walk there after school. His brother and sister also worked for the business throughout their schooling. Kirk took over the business in his senior year of college when his father suffered a heart attack, and has been running the place since 1995.
“My brother went on to be a college professor, and my sister works for Southern Illinois University. I was the youngest…So I just kinda took it over,” he said.
Despite the technological advancements and cultural changes over the past 50 years, not much has changed about the business’ processes and principles, Kirk said.
“It is basically the same as it is now…The same basic principles that were used then are used today,” Kirk said. “The equipment is a little bit better as far as pressing and stuff like that, but everything is done by hand.”
The dry-cleaning industry, however, has changed significantly throughout the years.
“The whole state of dry cleaning has been dwindling down. When my dad had the business, I could probably name seven or eight dry cleaners within 25 miles of where we were,” Kirk said. “Now you have me and Marion and that’s it, and really, I’m gone.”
Kirk gave multiple reasons why the dry cleaning business has dwindled. One is that the student body of SIU has “been cut in half.”
“When I was going there, you could not even get a parking place. Now you go there, and it’s like, ‘Is anybody going to school there?’” Kirk said. SIU enrollment has been declining since 1991 when enrollment peaked at 25,000 students. In fall of 2025, on campus enrollment was at 9,026 students.
The most influential factor was the cultural shift in fashion to more casual clothes.
“People are wearing less dress clothes, and even the large percentage of clothes we were doing could be done in somebody’s home by being washed and ironed,” Kirk said.
Regardless of the dwindling industry of dry cleaning, Horstman’s is closing because of Kirk’s health and well-being, he said.
In February of this year, Kirk had slipped on the ice outside the back door of Horstman’s. He had multiple fractures in his ankle and had to get surgery. Kirk has recently started physical therapy.
“They can’t run that place without me being there,” he said.
Up until his injury, Kirk had been consistently running the business and working for 30 years. “I’ve been working forever, six days a week, and long hours,” Kirk said.
With Horstman’s closed, the closest dry cleaner to Carbondale is Monroe Cleaners in Marion.
“I’ve already had the guy in Marion call me, and he said, ‘Man, you gotta get up and running; I can’t handle this additional payload,’” Kirk said.
In a March 21 phone call, Fred Monroe of Monroe Cleaners told the Daily Egyptian that Horstman’s closure had increased the workload on their staff.
“We are at the same amount of people with more business,” Monroe said.
Many people on social media thanked the business for their service to the community. On a May 27 Daily Egyptian Facebook post about Horstman’s then-potential closure, Jodi Usher Siefert wrote, “The only cleaners we ever trusted. Thanks for being the best.”
“The best cleaners!! We will miss them a lot!!” Nancy Cook wrote.
Read the original article on dailyegptian.com
