Mechanical parking lifts invented in Spokane

Friday’s Here’s the Dirt column was off the mark about the concept of parking elevators being new to the Spokane area.

While the mechanical lifts aren’t commonly used in Spokane, a type of parking elevator was actually invented here, five decades ago.

According to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Leo and Vaughn Sanders patented a robotic lift prior to 1950. It used a framework of vertical stalls and a movable elevators to lift and slide the cars.

To market their invention, they set up Pigeon Hole Parking, a complex that could park more than 110 cars in a lot that was only 50 feet wide.