Garage door guides
The History of the Garage Door: From Barn Doors to Wi-Fi
The door on your garage is the result of a hundred years of invention. Here is the short version, from the first overhead door to the smart openers we install today.
Where it started
Before 1921: barn doors on a house
When cars first arrived, people parked them where the horse used to live, so the first garage doors were simply barn doors. They swung out on side hinges or slid along a wall on a track. Both worked, and both were a nuisance: swing-out doors needed a clear, snow-free arc in the driveway, and sliding doors needed a long blank wall to disappear into. As cars became normal through the 1910s, homeowners wanted something better suited to a house.
The breakthrough
1921: the overhead door
The answer came from C.G. Johnson, who in 1921 designed the first upward-acting sectional overhead door — hinged panels that roll up and back along overhead tracks and tuck against the ceiling. It needed no driveway clearance and no spare wall, and it could span a wide opening. Johnson founded the Overhead Door Corporation to build it and famously drove a working model around on the back of a Ford to show people what it did.
1926: the door learns to lift itself
Five years later Johnson built the first electric garage door opener. Early openers were a luxury run by a wired wall switch, not a remote, but the idea was planted: the door could open on its own. Development stalled during the Second World War, when factories turned to the war effort.
The modern era
Post-war: remotes, then safety law
After the war the opener came home for good. Radio remote controls meant you could open the door from the car, and through the 1950s and 1960s the automatic door went from novelty to ordinary suburban feature. Two later changes matter most to the door you own now:
January 1, 1993: auto-reverse becomes the law
As millions of powered doors entered homes, so did a hazard — doors closing on children and pets. In response, the UL 325 standard was updated so that, since January 1, 1993, every residential opener sold in the United States must include an entrapment-protection system. That is the pair of photo-eye sensors near the floor that reverse a closing door if the beam is broken. It is the single most important safety feature on your door, which is why we never bypass one.
Rolling codes and Wi-Fi
Around the same time, rolling-code security began changing the door’s access code with every press so a captured signal could not be replayed. Today’s step is the smart Wi-Fi opener, which lets you open, close and check the door from your phone and see it in the new-door and opener options we install.
Our place in it
A Plainfield chapter
We are a small part of that long story. Vanguard was founded in 1991 by Jason O’Brian and his brother Mark, after both worked at the largest garage door company in the country and decided to do the same work closer to home. The tools have changed since Johnson’s Model T demonstrations — cordless winders, camera-ready openers, insulated steel panels — but the job is the same one it has always been: make a heavy door move easily and safely. If you want to keep yours doing that, start with our maintenance guide.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
When was the garage door invented?
Who invented the electric garage door opener?
When did garage door openers become common?
When did garage door safety sensors become required?
What is a rolling code on a garage remote?
What is the newest garage door technology?
How long has Vanguard worked on garage doors?
Why should I never bypass my garage door sensors?
Keep reading
More garage door guides
Garage Door Maintenance Guide · How Long Garage Door Parts Last · An Off-Track Door, Fixed (Case Study) · New Garage Door Options · Torsion vs Extension Springs · All guides
Keep your door in the modern era
From sensor repairs to smart openers, Vanguard keeps Plainfield doors safe and current. Call us seven days a week.