Vertical Parking Systems of the 1930s

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Soldier Field Parking Lot. Chicago 1930s.

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 2-5-2022

Greetings ~

In the days of horse and wagons, it was easy to find a parking spot. You simply parked in the street at the hitching post. When you think about it, before the 20th century, there were no parking lots. None in Victorian times, none in gothic England, none in Rome and none in the old towns of the wild west. As Marshal, Matt Dillon never had a parking lot in Dodge City to patrol. But, by 1905 and the advent of the automobile, some cities needed somewhere to put them. Horseless carriages were selling well and city streets were filling with them year after year. Of course parking lots were created all over cities but this land was soon wanted for other purposes. But what to do with the cars was the problem.

I'm not talking about this kind of vertical parking.

In 1905, Paris, France came up with a solution. Highrise parking facilities. The first was the Garage Rue de Ponthieu. This was a large structure where patrons brought in their cars. An attendant would drive the car onto an auto elevator and take it to the upper floors and park it. Over the years, other designs were made. In the 1920s, a setup like a Farris wheel was designed and named the Paternoster System and had the autos lifted on a large Farris wheel setup. Now eight cars could fit in the space of two earlier. This system was actually very easy to operate and could be used outdoors or inside a building. The auto was driven into a suspended cage and lifted by a large belt. Powered by electric motors and a hydraulic pump, the farris wheel design used less ground area so the cost was lower to operate.

There were all sorts of inventions. This one dropped a powered spear tire to move the car sideways into a parking spot.

This idea continued into the early 1950s.

In The United States, the earliest parking system like this was the vertical lift or as it was called, The Auto Parking Machine. These became popular in L.A., New York City and Chicago. For the Century of Progress World's Fair in 1933, The Nash Motor Company designed and built the first all glass enclosed parking system. It was during this time that the Kent Automatic Garages firm was building automated parking systems that could park over 1,000 cars.

Vertical parking lot in Chicago 1930s. Held up to 48 cars.

Washington D.C. had the first driverless parking garage in 1951. However, because of frequent accidents and malfunctions it closed down shortly after opening. Sometimes people had to wait for well over an hour or two in order to get their car out. These systems were Pigeon Hole Systems, Roto Park and Bowser.

The interest in the vertical parking systems were running low by the 1950s. People were not pleased with the long waits to get their cars. And there were several actual accidents with the lifts that severely damaged automobiles. So, parking decks and highrise parking garage buildings were taking over the fame. But there are a few of the original systems still in operation, many in Asia.