A Generational Legacy of Excellence

In 1981, Frank Baldwin learned to clean windows from fellow school teacher and friend, Ed Hansen. Ed paid for college cleaning windows and continued the trade after he became a school teacher to provide summer and after-hours income. He needed help with the larger luxury homes his fine skills garnered, so he trained Frank. When the demands for Ed’s services grew beyond what he could handle, he gave new clients to Frank. So, Frank Baldwin’s window cleaning service started.

Frank was a teacher at heart. So, he took his son-in-law Larry Barclay along on a residential window cleaning job while Larry was visiting on a vacation. The money helped pay for the trip. A tradition transpired, Frank would schedule his larger jobs during Larry’s annual vacations to visit. It helped pay for the trips. It helped pay for the trips, but also empowered Larry with master window cleaning skills along with respect for clients, their property, privacy, and always giving something extra.

While on one of these “vacation jobs” Frank had been asked by the wife of a house to replace some light bulbs in a set of small crystal lamps on the ceiling of a breezeway. Frank gave the job to Larry. While carefully replacing one of the lights, the rag holding the lightbulb wiped the side of the crystal light. What had appeared to be smoked glass was an accumulation of dirt. The clean swipe now gleamed bright against a grimy background. No choice. It demanded cleaning as did the other two in the breezeway.

“Oh, my goodness! I didn’t know they looked like that!”, the wife exclaimed on returning home. “Can you clean the rest of the outdoor lights, too?” 27 lights later, Larry had added crystal light cleaning to his skills.

When his teenage sons were needing work in 2009, Larry started Crystal Gleam for them to earn money and advance their life skills. Working alongside his sons, he imparted the holistic vision of window care Frank had taught him. In 2016, Grant determined to go full time with window cleaning. His passion for excellence has led to finding better techniques, safer practices, and products to take Crystal Gleam’s craftsmanship to a higher level than Frank ever envisioned.
So, when you hire Crystal Gleam, your view will benefit from skills refined though three generations of window cleaners. Acquire your share of the legacy.