The U.S. Hoffman Machinery Corporation Records contains items primarily related to the company's manufacture of munitions during World War II, their receipt of the Army-Navy E Award, and the founding of Valetor Deluxe Cleaners by Hoffman plant manager, Peter H. Prenting.
The written history used throughout this site was written by Peter's son, Theodore "Ted" Prenting.
Ted is a Marist College Professor Emeritus/Heritage Professor of Business.
U.S. Hoffman was the successor company to what started out as the Hoffman Pressing Machine Company in Syracuse, NY in 1904. A tailor of the period designed a foot operated steam pressing machine that could be used by tailors, garment factories and dry cleaners instead of clumsy, heavy hand-held steam irons, and a business man at the time brought this into production. By the 1930s, U.S. Hoffman Machinery Corp. was one of the largest producers of a full line of laundry and dry-cleaning machinery in the United States.
In 1936, U.S. Hoffman opened a new plant in Poughkeepsie, NY, in addition to their main plant in Syracuse. The Poughkeepsie Plant was located at 18 Violet Avenue in buildings enlarged by Great Eastern Lithographing. Before the outbreak of WWII, the Poughkeepsie Plant produced a variety of equipment for the commercial/industrial laundry/dry cleaning industries.
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