On Tuesday, the SF Board of Supervisors moved to study whether a Mission laundromat is a historic resource, delaying 75 units of housing by 5 months. We wanted to look back at famous laundromats of history.

Garden of Eden, 6000 BC

Eating the forbidden fruit without any napkins makes quite a mess. Adam and Eve stop by the Garden of Eden Wash & Fold on their way to getting expelled from the Garden.

Mesopotamia, 1754 BC

After someone takes his clothes out of the dryer and drops them on the ground, the sixth Babylonian King, Hammurabi, has had enough. He writes a set of laws on a stone stele. The resulting Code of Hammurabi is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world.

Wittenberg, Germany, 1517

Martin Luther posts his famous 95 Theses on the door of All Saints Church. The theses include theologically thorny questions such as "How come 60 minutes isn't ever enough time to get my clothes dry" and "Could God make a shirt so stained that even He couldn't get it clean?" Luther's questions kickstarted the Reformation, a schism that permanently divided the Catholic Church and altered Europe forever.

Easter Island, 1600

Two islanders begin arguing after one claims the other stole a pair of stonewashed jeans out of the washer at the Rapa Nui Super Wash. The ensuing fight engulfs the island. Everyone dies. The island lies empty for centuries.

Appomattox, 1865

It turns out your clothes get quite dirty during a scorched earth campaign. After accepting Lee's surrender, General Ulysses S. Grant headed to the Appomattox Soap 'n' Suds to get some clean duds.

Germany, 1867

The Trier Launderland swallows Karl Marx's quarters for the fourth straight visit. Marx publishes Das Kapital, a groundbreaking work documenting the conflict between the ruling class, which owns the means of production, and the proletariat.

Sarajevo, 1914

Gonzalo Princip doesn't realize you can't mix colors with whites and stains all his clothes. He's so mad he storms out of the Stari Grad Coin Laundry and assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand, starting World War I and throwing the world into turmoil.

Nadikdik Atoll, Marshall Islands

45 years after vanishing over the Pacific Ocean during her around-the-world excursion, Amelia Earhart is discovered helping the locals get clean clothes at The Clothes Spin, a punny store-name on this island of 50,000 residents.

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