The history and etymology of “parking” track a shift in meaning from a military term associated with lining up wagons to a public parklike space adjacent to a roadway to its current meaning as car storage. Parking thus historically had nothing to do with cars, predating their invention, and this unique history continues to evolve in the context of Washington, D.C. This paper seeks to trace this little-known history through historical research, as well as document the various plans that established public parking in the District of Columbia and then track its transition to the typical current meaning as car storage. Tracing the evolution of parking and connecting it to current work promoting green space and walkability could bring about a renaissance of public parking in its previous meaning, highlighting its story, and have implications for the significance and design of public space not just in the District but across the world.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
MillerC.Carscape: A Parking Handbook. Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation, Columbus, IN, 1988.
2.
ChildsM.Parking Spaces: A Design, Implementation, and Use Manual for Architects, Planners, and Engineers. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 1999.
EnoW.The Storage of Dead Vehicles on Roadways. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 116, 1924, pp. 169–174.
5.
SavageK.Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., The National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 2009.
6.
TindallW.The Origin of the Parking System of This City. Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 4, 1901, pp. 75–99.
7.
JakleJ. A.SculleK. A.Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, VA, 2004.
8.
LewisS.Main Street. Chapter 3, Section 5. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, NY, 1920.
9.
L’Enfant Plan. Library of Congress, Geography and Maps Division, 1792.
10.
AndersonK.PoussonE.Historic Context Statement on Public Space in the District of Columbia. District of Columbia Office of Planning, Washington, D.C., 2009.
11.
ScottP.“The City of Living Green”: An Introduction to Washington’s Street Trees. Washington History, Vol. 18, No. 1/2, 2006, pp. 20–45.
12.
WillardH. K.Henry Augustus Willard: His Life and Times. Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 20, 1917, pp. 270–272.
13.
U.S. Congress. An Act Authorizing the Corporation of the City of Washington to Set Apart Portions of Streets and Avenues as Parks for Trees and Walks. Presented at 41st Congress, 2nd Session, Washington, D.C., 1870.
14.
U.S. Congress. An Act for the Protection of Parks in Streets and Avenues. Presented at 2nd Legislative Assembly, 1st Session, Washington, D.C., 1872.
U.S. Congress. An Act for the Protection of Parks and Lawns in the District of Columbia, and reservations and other land of the United States in said District. Presented at 3rd Legislative Assembly, 1st Session, Washington, D.C., 1873.
17.
U.S. Congress. An Act to Provide for the Establishment of Building Lines on Certain Streets in the District of Columbia, and for Other Purposes. Presented at 56th Congress, 3rd Session, Washington, D.C., 1899.
18.
DavisT.Designing the Nation’s Capital: The 1901 Plan for Washington, D.C. U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., 2006.
19.
ShaheenC. M.Beyond the Grand Design: City Planning in Washington beyond the Federal Core, 1919-1941. Master’s thesis. The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 2000.
20.
Board of Public Works. Evening Star. July16, 1873, p. 2.
21.
The Funeral Procession. Evening Star. November26, 1875.
MaloneyD.The Governmental Response to the Parking Problem in Washington, D.C. 1920-1980. Graduate School Paper. The George Washington University, Urban and Regional Planning 208, Washington, D.C., 1980.
27.
Report of the Board of Commissioners to Congress, 1924. Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia.
28.
RichmondM.The Etymology of Parking. Arnoldia, Vol. 73, No. 2, 2015, pp. 19–24.
29.
HackmanL.MartinN. D.The Parking Industry: Private Enterprise for the Public Good. National Parking Association, Washington, D.C., 1969.
30.
NortonP.Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008.
ShaheenC.Public Parking: Transforming the Nation’s Capital from Gritty to Garden City. Presented at 38th Annual Conference on DC Historical Studies, Washington, D.C., 2011.
35.
District of Columbia Office of Planning. The Comprehensive Plan. 2011.
36.
District Department of Transportation. Public Realm Design Manual: A Summary of District of Columbia Regulations and Specification for the Design of Public Space Elements. District Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 2011.
MontgomeryC.Happy City: Transforming Our Lives through Urban Design. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, NY, 2013.
40.
Urban Land Institute. Building Healthy Places Toolkit: Strategies for Enhancing Health in the Built Environment. Urban Land Institute, Washington, D.C., 2015.
41.
DuanyA.The Lexicon of New Urbanism. DPZ, Miami, FL, 2003.
42.
StilgoeJ.What is Landscape?The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2015.
43.
LitmanT.Pavement Busters Guide: Why and How to Reduce the Amount of Land Paved for Roads and Parking Facilities. Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Victoria, BC, Canada, 2017.
