This is an assortment of Park-O-Meter parking meters. They were manufactured by the Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company. The founder of this company, Carl C. Magee, is recognized as the first person to receive a patent for a paying parking meter. His patent was issued in 1938. Magee’s invention of the parking meters was the result of a request by the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce to solve their downtown-parking problem. People were parking in the parking spaces for too long, including people who worked downtown that parked in the spots all day. This resulted in lost income for the local merchants. Paying for a parking spot assured that people would move once their time was expired on the meter. In addition, the meters earned significant revenue for the town of Oklahoma City.
The meters pictured here allowed 2 hours of parking for a nickel. They were manufactured in the 1950s and have been restored and painted in different colors. A great reuse of one of these meters would be as a conversation piece in a gameroom or office.
These items are not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby of collecting and restoration. We also enjoy sharing the photos of the many items we have restored over the years.
4 responses so far ↓
1 jim // Mar 20, 2010 at 9:14 pm
GREAT Pictures! Think of the history – Also, I’m trying to find a manual on an old Park-O-Meter to restore to place in my office and add pic to my website. Also need its keys. These meters are very cool. (do one green thing today!)
2 vintagevending // Mar 22, 2010 at 8:51 am
Jim,
Try this page: http://www.ionet.net/~luttrell/tips.html#locks
It has some information that may be able to help you.
3 kelly // Mar 22, 2010 at 3:33 pm
I have a park- o- meter made by magee-hale it runs on pennie’s and nickle’s states patent’s pending , manufactured by – macnick co, tulsa.ok, it has a parking time of 1hr. Works great and to the best of my knowledge original paint (brownish/copper/type color). It only has 1 coin slot and is ser #657. Can you tell me anything about this meter
4 Bruce H // May 30, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Kelly…. I just picked up a couple like you describe. Someone made these into a lamp. When I plug them in, there are a bunch of tiney lights on the face plate and on the meter itself that come on. I have a key that works in both for the coin door, but do not have a key to open the ‘face’ of the meter. One meter works and the other is jammed and the top light doesn’t work either. Mine are red white and blue. Both say Automatic Park-O-Meter Pat Pending. One says “Original Carl Magee Parking Meter” on the other face plate. Where did you find the serial number on yours???
Thanks
Bruce
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