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Elliott Abbott, a professional dry cleaner, founded the Pratt-Abbott in 1944 at the corner of Congress Street and Deering Avenue in Portland, Maine. Soon afterwards, a professional tailor named Charlie Pratt joined Mr. Abbott, and the Pratt-Abbott name was born. Together they ran a successful business, selling it to Roderick Lowell in 1958 who expanded the business to six locations and diversified into coin-operated laundries in the 1960’s and uniform rental services in the mid 1970’s. By the 1980’s Pratt-Abbott had become the largest dry-cleaning company in Maine.
In 1991, James R. Machesney, Sr. and David E. Machesney formed the Toba Tarp Corporation and purchased Pratt-Abbott from Mr. Lowell. Doing business as Pratt-Abbott Cleaners, the company now operates 19 retail dry-cleaning stores, 10 of which include coin-operated laundries.
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