In 1927, John S. Blick had a solution to the parking problem at the new Arcade Market at 14th and Kenyon streets NW: let customers park on the roof. A ramp led up from the alley, but the plan still needed approval from the District Commissioners and neighboring property owners.
Here’s how The Washington Post described the proposal on November 9, 1927.
The first commercial house in Washington to establish a parking garage on its roof for the convenience of patrons, will be the new Arcade Market at Fourteenth and Kenyon streets northwest, if plans submitted yesterday by John S. Blick, president of the Washington Acrade Co. to the District Commissioners are adopted.
The new market, which will be opened about November 23, has been built only one story high, and a ramp runs from the alley at the side of the new structure to the roof.
If the Commissioners approve of Mr. Blick’s plan, and he is able to gain the consent of adjacent property owners, he plans to allow motoring customers of the market to drive up the ramp and park their cars while shopping. Traffic in the vicinity of the market becomes very congested at certain times of the day, and Mr. Blick feels that the roof garage will be a great convenience to shoppers.
While some garages in the city have established roof garages on which to store cars which have been turned in and which are being held for resale, no other establishment in the city has established a parking garage on its roof. The idea has been carried out successfully by merchants in other cities, notably Chicago, and has been suggested here several times.
Nearly a century after Blick’s 1927 proposal, anyone who has tried to park around 14th and Kenyon will recognize the problem. His proposed solution was to send shoppers up a ramp to the roof.
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