At the time of this ramps construction in Madison, only two other cities in the country used this method of parking. The original plan for the lot called for a three deck structure that would hold 192 cars. (Wisconsin State Journal, June 30, 1951)
The first commercial pigeon-hole parking unit in the world was built for the Harry S. Manchester department store, behind Manchester's at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and East Dayton Street. The Manchester pigeon-hole parking unit was six stories high and it held 169 cars. The parking is all done mechanically without a hand touching the auto after the driver steps out. The hydraulically-operated lift moves sideways and vertically and can park 169 cars at an average time of 35 seconds per car when operating at peak efficiency. The photo shows an interior view of the parking unit with the mechanical lift at the far end taking a car up.
Vaughn and Leo Sanders grew up in a timber family in northeast Washington. They were loggers who also ran a silver mine and a lumber mill.
Leo up with the idea of robotic parking valet while operating a forklift at the mill. After serving in World War II, the brothers founded Pigeon Hole Parking in 1947.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Content.aspx?dsNav=Ny:True,Ro:0,N:4294963828-4294955414&dsNavOnly=N:1135&dsRecordDetails=R:IM78176&dsDimensionSearch=D:pigeon+hole+parking,Dxm:All,Dxp:3&dsCompoundDimensionSearch=D:pigeon+hole+parking,Dxm:All,Dxp:3
What were the other two cities that featured pigeonhole parking?
ReplyDeleteSpokane, Phoenix https://library.tmc.edu/mcgovern/2011/03/18/pigeon-hole-parking-1953/
Deletehttps://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/nov/03/then-and-now-pigeon-hole-parking/ on the origin, and expansion, and legal expenses because their employees kept ripping off the idea to make money without being an employee of Pigeon Hole Parking Co
DeleteInteresting that the only examples were in what I would call "small" cities.
ReplyDeleteHow did the cars get from the lift into their individual pigeon-hole?
hang on... you know I posted all I wanted to about this, in 2017, right? The rest isn't my homework, because I post and move on. I don't make encyclopedic entries about things very often. It's happened, but it's rare that I deep dive into something. This is only a blog, in my spare time.
DeleteThey did cover it thoroughly in the link I replied with https://library.tmc.edu/mcgovern/2011/03/18/pigeon-hole-parking-1953/ just look through those, in full size. Those adverts talk all about it.
I dig that you're still working your way through the archives.