We get it. The history of the garage door may not be the most thrilling story out there.
But it is interesting, though—especially the ending.
Learn all about how the evolution of garage doors has changed the way we come and go, leading up to the most groundbreaking invention in the history of garage doors: the smart garage system.
The history of the garage door
With the invention of the automobile in the early 1900s, the need for a place to store vehicles quickly presented itself. More often than not, those who were able to afford an automobile already had a decent place to store it: a small carriage house where the horse-drawn buggy was once kept.
These carriage houses were similar to the garages we use today, except for two major differences: they were almost always separated from the structure of the home, and the garage doors didn’t lift with the push of a button.
In fact, the garage doors didn’t lift at all. The standard for carriage houses was a set of grand double doors, side by side, that opened outward. This type of garage door system required owners to get in and out of their car any time they needed to open or close the doors.
The doors were inconvenient, to say the least. They also required a great deal of maintenance and care to work properly, being that they were opened and closed so frequently. Additionally, the doors couldn’t open if there were just a few inches of snow on the ground to block them.
The overhead door
It wasn’t until the year 1921 that C.G. Johnson gave the world something better: the upward acting garage door (also commonly referred to as the overhead door). Rather than opening outward, this type of garage door could be lifted upward off the ground.
Because the upward door was the first real change in the industry, C.G. Johnson is widely credited for the invention of garage doors and his company is still thriving after almost 100 years since the first model was released.
