When you’re choosing a garage door, you may focus on brand names you know and products that offer the performance and amenities you desire. That’s because a high-functioning garage is a crucial part of any household. But a garage sometimes takes on a meaning beyond just the home. Consider what took place inside the garages at these famous addresses:
- 4651 Kingswell Avenue, Los Angeles, CA — Brothers Walt and Roy Disney left Missouri and headed west in 1923. They landed in Los Angeles, where they began filming “Alice Comedy” shorts in the one-car garage behind their Uncle Robert’s house on Kingswell Avenue. They made enough money that they soon moved into the back of a realty office. And they did well enough there that they moved into a real studio. Today, the Disneys’ legacy is known worldwide, and visitors visit Disneyland in Anaheim each year — just about an hour’s drive from where it all started behind a house on Kingswell Avenue.
- 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, CA — Newly married Dave Packard moved with his wife into a first floor apartment at 367 Addison Avenue in 1937. Packard’s friend Bill Hewlett moved into the garage out back. Using $538 in capital, the two started a technology company that would eventually grow into a universal name. At the flip of a coin, they decided whose name would come first in the title of their new endeavor. Bill won. Hewlett-Packard’s first successful project was the HP200A, a low distortion audio oscillator used to test sound equipment — and it was designed and created in the garage on Addison Avenue.
- 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, CA — Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had a simple plan when they launched their company in 1976. They wanted to design great computers, construct them inside the garage at Jobs’ childhood home, and then sell the computers to a local retailer. The plan worked. In a span of 30 days, Jobs and Wozniak built the first batch of 50 Apple I computers inside the garage on Crist Drive. They then sold them at $500 a pop to a nearby retailer. Almost 40 years later, Apple is one of the most successful, respected companies in the world. And Jobs’ stepmother continues to reside at 2066 Crist Avenue.
- 10704 NE 28th Street in Bellevue, WA — In summer 1994, Jeff Bezos moved his family from New York City to the Seattle suburb of Bellevue. He was looking specifically for a home that featured a workspace from which he could launch his new company — called “Cadabra” at the time. He found this three-bedroom on 28th street, rented it for $890 a month, and began working on his business from inside the home’s garage. A year later, the name Amazon had replaced Cadabra, and Bezos sold his first book online. By 1997, Amazon had issued an IPO. The rest of the story is e-commerce history.
- 232 Santa Margarita Avenue, Menlo Park, CA — In winter 1998, recent business school graduate Susan Wojcicki was worried about making mortgage payments on her home at 232 Santa Margarita. She rented three bedrooms and the garage to Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were still living on campus. Working in the garage and using Stanford’s servers, Page and Brin launched Google, their new search engine. Today, Wojicki is a senior vice president at Google, which has grown into one of the world’s most successful companies. And Google now owns the house on Santa Margarita — garage included.
What will happen in your garage? It’s hard to predict the founding of a world-renowned company, but you never know. Even if your garage is just a place to park cars, store memories or spend rainy days playing games, make sure it’s the high-functioning space it should be.
Custom Door & Gate can help ensure your garage is fully operational and fully ready to accommodate whatever entrepreneurial creativity may emerge from it. The purpose of a garage is to facilitate whatever you like, and we can help you achieve your garage door dreams by repairing common garage door problems, walking you through garage door opener safety tips, or providing expert guidance as you start the process of choosing a garage door.
Since 1989, we have been serving home and business owners in Raleigh, Greensboro, Greenville, Fayetteville and other North Carolina communities. For service, repair, installation or just to answer a few questions, we’re always here to help.
Contact Custom Door & Gate about your garage.