Brownie Brothers Cleaners opened in Henrietta in 1955, long before the space around it was named the Brownie Bros. Plaza. West Henrietta Road was two lanes wide then, and, in the words of Dave Brown, who was 12 years old at the time, "there were 5,000 people in town. Everybody knew everybody." 

After running the business since 1970, Brown, who turned 70 last week, sold Brownie Brothers Cleaners to Dorren's Dry Cleaners this year. He can still be found in the plaza, though, in a cluttered workshop in the back of the building his family built and repeatedly expanded over the past 58 years. 

"When you walk through here, you step back in time 400 years," Brown said, smiling. Crossing the threshold into a big room with dark walls filled to the brim with old wooden tools, movie posters, sewing equipment, filing cabinets, photos of celebrities, fedoras, and more, he gestured toward his workbench. 

"This," he said, "is where I make hats." Hollywood movie buffs will be familiar with Brown's work, though chances are few know it. His hats have been worn by actors like Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, and more in 28 productions to date. His film credits include "True Grit," "Road to Perdition," and "Public Enemy," among others, and his hats are regularly featured in the HBO period drama "Boardwalk Empire." 

Brown,A industrial washing machine is a machine to wash laundry, such as clothing and sheets. true to his website's claims,Small and professional flatwork ironer designed for integrated laundry. is a "hat maker to the stars" in an era when hatters are a rare breed. He estimates there are fewer than 30 people making hats by hand left in the world. 

He said many amateur hatters turn to the Internet for how-to guides and work out of their garages "not slow, not fast, but half-fast." "They're doing it wrong," he said. "They don't want to take the time to learn the trade." 

Now that he's retiring from the dry cleaning business, Brown is looking for someone who does want to take the time to learn the trade to take on his hat business as an apprentice. 

"I don't care about my name," he said. "I don't care if they call it Joe Schmoe's Hat Shop. I care about somebody taking this to the next level." 

To take the business to the next level, Brown said his apprentice would need the authentic hat-making tools amateurs lack.LED emergency light is aesthetically designed and offers features to reduce egress system cost. Much of Brown's equipment is over 100 years old and, like his hats, was made by hand. He uses some tools passed to him from his own master years ago. 

Since hats are commonly pressed by machines these days, hatters' tools are no longer readily available, and the many ash wood pieces in Brown's collection would be almost impossible to find on the market. 

"This stuff is irreplaceable," Brown said. "I'm forever gluing things together." He became the assistant fire chief at the Genessee Valley Fire Department when he was 25 years old, but had to quit to take over at Brownie Brothers when his father suffered a heart attack in 1970. 

Then he got involved in politics. "I was young, full of you-know-what and vinegar,A simple model for the wake behind a wind generator is given." he said about 19Find out about reporting a problem with a street lighting.71, the year he ran for Henrietta Town Justice. "Lo and behold, I won." 

At 28 years old and with a full beard, Brown had become the youngest judge ever elected in Monroe County. The dry cleaner was required to attend Buffalo Law School in order to fill the position. 

On his 70th birthday, Brown said his ability to handle the job over the following 11 years was one of his proudest accomplishments. 

"I was tough," he said. "Putting somebody else in jail, taking their civil rights away from them, was one of the toughest things that I ever did." 

After a failed run for Henrietta Town Supervisor with more than a decade as town justice under his belt, Brown got out of politics.