Pearl Steam Laundry was founded by Daniel Korb and Jacob G. Rust in 1896. Both men grew up on farms outside Evansville. Korb became a bookkeeper, and Rust worked as a wagon driver and, later, as a streetcar conductor. The two men met and became friends when both worked for the Evansville Ice and Cold Storage Company. Korb married Rust's sister Margaret. In 1896 they formed the firm Rust and Korb, pooled their resources, and purchased a small, debt-ridden laundry for $550. The Pearl Steam Laundry was located on the city's west side at 1015 West Franklin, but the business expanded rapidly and outgrew its facilities. In 1897 the company leased space at 300 East Pennsylvania Street; in 1902, it moved to 30-32 Upper Water, on the corner of Vine. In 1912 the company moved to a new building at 114-128 Second Avenue. [The location shown here.] Rust and Korb carefully designed the new building with efficiency in mind; their business depended upon high volume and low cost. Laundry entered the one-floor working area on one end of the building and was systematically sorted, marked, weighed, washed, dried, pressed, bundled, routed, and, finally, deposited in waiting wagons at the other end. A tradition that continued into the 1990s was the offer of a pickup and delivery service for family laundry. Horse-drawn buggies originally plied the streets to make deliveries. After 1912 the horses were housed in a stable with concrete floors attached to the main offices. In the early 1920s the stable's windows were bricked up, and the area was used for cold storage. Rust retired in 1928 and the business has been in the Korb family ever since. It closed August 11, 2017. It now faces a lawsuit by the local non-profit broadcasting company, located in an nearby building, over the cost of cleaning up the soil, groundwater and vapor contamination from cleaning solvents.