Provo's beloved Wash Hut to close after 53 years

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PROVO — Two Provo business owners will clean out the lint traps for the final time this week.

The Wash Hut laundromat, at 600 N. 485 East, closes Friday after 53 years of ownership by Vic and Joyce Oldroyd.

The Oldroyds are inviting former Wash Hut customers and friends to celebrate the last 53 years on Friday, Aug. 18, from 6-7 p.m. at the laundromat.

After the washers and dryers are cleared out, the space will become a restaurant.

Vic Oldroyd said it was an emotional decision to finally sell the beloved laundry, but he’s recovering from surgery that happened earlier this year, and he’ll be 84 in November.

“It’s been very difficult,” he said. “We’ll miss it.”

When Vic and Joyce purchased the laundry facility in 1964, there were only five washers and seven dryers. Now, there are more than 100 machines in the building.

Over the years, the Wash Hut has become a Provo institution and a beloved place for BYU students and others not only to wash their clothes, but also to gather for neighborhood events.

The Oldroyds' four children helped their parents run the laundry over the years, cleaning the equipment and maintaining the candy machines. Vic Oldroyd said the kids loved helping out.

“They thought they were the richest people in Provo,” he said.

The Wash Hut is located near where thousands of BYU students live, so it’s in a great spot in a friendly neighborhood, Vic Oldroyd said.

Some people even found love at the Wash Hut, he said.

“There’s been a number of people who came back and said I met my spouse at the Wash Hut doing laundry,” he said.

Joyce Oldroyd said some BYU wards have held break-the-fast or family home evening gatherings at the Wash Hut. When an Oldroyd granddaughter was living in an apartment above the laundromat, she held a big dance in the building.

“It really is a wonderful location, and it’s been a gathering place for a lot of different things,” Joyce Oldroyd said.

There were two apartments in the Wash Hut building, and people often lived in the apartments rent-free in exchange for helping run the laundromat, Vic Oldroyd said.

Two of the Oldroyd sons lived in the Wash Hut apartments while they were starting their families, Vic Oldroyd said. Several of his grandchildren also have lived in the apartments while they were attending school or starting their own families, he said.

The Provo neighborhood where the Wash Hut is located has always been friendly, Vic Oldroyd said. In the first 15 years, the doors were open 24/7.

When no one was manning the store, Vic Oldroyd used to leave quarters on the counter for people to make their own change on the honor system, he said.

“It’s interesting to me that the neighborhood we’re in and the customers we have are very trustworthy and honest,” Vic Oldroyd said. “So it’s been great that way. We’ve had very little vandalism, if any, through the years. It’s just a great neighborhood.”

Joyce Oldroyd said the Wash Hut building has been home to many things — apartments, a grocery store, a cleaning shop, a carpet store — but there’s only one business that lasted all 53 years.

“It was the laundromat that really did outlive all the others,” she said.