| The garage door came about soon after the | | | | barns with a very basic garage door to protect the |
| invention of the modern automobile, as people | | | | automobiles from the elements. The first garage door |
| needed a place to store their cars. Originally, cars and | | | | was a simple barn door, a double door that was |
| horses were stored in the same building; but few | | | | attached to the garage with hinges that could open |
| liked the idea of storing cars and horse in the same | | | | outwards. These garages were basically sheds and |
| place, as there was both a risk of the horse | | | | for that reason, garage doors were often opened |
| damaging the car and the idea of horse manure | | | | and closed and thus subjected to heavy wear and |
| smelling cars just wan not appealing. | | | | tear. The hinges would often creak and the screws |
| Originally, garages were very similar to our one-level | | | | would always bend and fall out. With winter, it also |
| parking lots. Large (often privately-owned) garages | | | | took much effort to shovel the snow off the ground |
| were built where people could store multiple cars at | | | | so that the door could be opened. |
| $15-$20 a month for a parking space (quite a lot of | | | | In later years, siding tracks would be used for garage |
| money back then). The garage was heated, | | | | doors, and hence more versatile designs were |
| maintained and cleaned by the owner and worked | | | | developed. If the garage doors could remain within |
| until about 1910, when there became too many cars | | | | the area of the garage via sliding tracks a lot of |
| and too few garages. | | | | space could be saved. These doors could be moved |
| Now, people were looking for car garages closer to | | | | sideways across the front of the garage to open |
| home to make travel faster and easier. The original | | | | and close them. However, this led to a problem as it |
| garage concept that horses and cars shared a building | | | | meant that the garage had to be at least double the |
| was workable, if horses and the smell of their | | | | width of the door. A new garage door was soon |
| manure could be removed. Thus, the concept of the | | | | developed that was cut into sections, then hinged |
| modern garage was born. The word garage comes | | | | together at intervals, allowing it to fold around a |
| from the French 'garer' - to shelter or protect. | | | | corner. |
| The first garages were quite basic. They were simple | | | | |