It can be a hassle to pull the old license plates off your car and bolt on your new ones. But it’s easier than making your own plates.
That was one of the chores for Clark County’s earliest motorists, according to the Washington Department of Licensing.
The Columbian recently reported on this year’s makeover in car license plates, with Washington moving to a seven-character format after exhausting the combinations of three numbers and three letters.
In addition to information on that change, the agency’s website includes a history of all the transitions in auto licensing since 1905.
Back then, the state just issued the license number. The car owner had to make the plate by painting the number on a piece of wood, metal or leather. The owner also could paint the license number on the front and rear of the car.
In 1915, the state started issuing plates made of wood or leather, then metal in 1916 and porcelain in 1917.
The state settled on metal plates in 1921, creating a major shift in more ways than one.
When a big shipment of the new plates was delivered, they were stored with other license plates in Olympia in the Legislative Building’s basement. The plates were so heavy that the floor began to sink, prompting a weekend moving job.
In 1963, a misunderstanding in design specifications for new plates meant there was no space for the validation tabs. So the state name was replaced by the abbreviation “WASH 63” — creating space for the tabs as well as a storm of protest.
As a result, the 1965 Legislature passed a law prohibiting the use of “WASH” on a Washington vehicle license plate.
To see the history, visit http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/HistoryofLicensePlates.pdf.
Just horsing around
Ed Firstenburg pioneered several banking concepts in Clark County as founder of First Independent Bank. Firstenburg, who died on Aug. 21 at the age of 97, brought the first ATM to Clark County in 1978.
First Indy also boasted the first drive-up window in Southwest Washington, at its Hazel Dell branch. And the first person to use the innovation brought his own pioneering spirit to the event in 1954.
According to the bank’s history, the first customer at the window was a rider on horseback.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
