In the early 1900’s Henry Ford unveiled the Model T. This automobile was affordable, reliable, and had country roads and small towns in mind. The cost of the Model T made it affordable for the majority of the population. This boom in the automobile industry led several other car makers to start producing affordable cars, which made for even more car owners. With so many Americans now on the road they needed a place to store their newly purchased vehicles!
Carriage houses, originally meant to house horses and the carriages they led, had a new addition: the automobile. Eventually, carriage houses were phased out as more and more people purchased vehicles, and were replaced with garages. Early garages had side-opening panel doors which worked, but not in the most convenient manner. Seeing that these doors required double the amount of space to open, C. G. Johnson had an idea. In 1921 Johnson patented a sectional overhead door, and with that idea, a corporation was born.
To showcase this new invention, Johnson traveled to fairs and expositions with a prototype door attached to his Model T. With the help of new marketing tactics such as customer coupons and community bulletin boards, Johnson quickly established a network of distributors. Five years later, Johnson brought another invaluable piece of technology to the industry to help those who could not manually lift their doors: the electric garage door opener. These two inventions laid the foundation for Overhead Door Corporation, which has continued to be a leader in the industry.