Automobiles

West Chester's first automobile ordinance, passed in 1904, required automobiles to yield for horses, not exceed eight miles per hour, sound a "gong or alarm" at streets or other crossings, and obtain a registration. Automobiles remained expensive, however, and most people continued to use horses. In early 1909, the Daily Local News reported that almost one thousand horses were sold in the Borough in 75 days, and claimed it was "apparent that the automobile is not taking the place of this faithful beast of burden."

By 1917, all that had changed. Harry Glisson of N. Walnut Street told the Daily Local News that one Sunday, he saw 1,930 motor vehicles pass between 8am and 5pm, compared to only 27 horse-drawn vehicles. In January 1923, the newspaper wrote "There are probably more cars of all characters that pass the corner of High and Gay Streets than any other street corner in West Chester and on summer days, especially Sunday, [the number] run[s] into the thousands. On several occasions, there have been more than two a minute in the middle of the day, ... yet ... little delay occurred, except when trolley cars are standing at the terminal, or some driver stops at the side of the street and carelessly blocks the way." Later that year, N. C. Wasser of E. Gay Street counted 448 cars go by the post office in a single hour.

There was other evidence of increasing traffic during the 1920s. Farmers like Gunkel Smith and T. E. Smith, who hauled loads for people before the war using horses and wagons, began to acquire gasoline-powered trucks. In 1920, the Sheller family began to allow automobiles to compete on the horse racing track located on their farm east of town. That same year, Lewis Hickman Jr. bought a bus to haul school children and used it to build up a bus company. Local builder Patrick Corcoran started his own bus company in 1923.

The growth in traffic led to changes in the Borough. After assigning a traffic officer to the corner of High and Gay in 1923, Borough Council installed a shelter for the officer in December of that year. By 1931, he was replaced with the Borough's first traffic light (within two decades there were seven more). After World War II, future mayor Charles E. Lucas Jr. used his position as the president of the Automobile Club of Chester County to promote a bypass around West Chester.

The desire to improve the flow of traffic conflicted with the need for more parking. To allow cars to negotiate Gay Street more easily, , parking was outlawed along both sides east of Matlack in 1941. But to provide more on-street parking, the Borough converted streets to one-way so that cars could park on both sides. In 1939, New, Darlington and Barnard Streets became one-way. Walnut and Matlack Streets were added to the list in 1941 along with Market and Gay between Matlack and New Streets. College Avenue was converted in 1942; W. Miner Street in 1949; Magnolia, Lacey, Nields, and Linden Streets in 1952; Union, plus the 700-blocks of S. Penn and S. Adams Streets in 1956; the rest of Gay and Market Streets in 1961; and Church Street in 1969. In 1961, New and Darlington Streets switched directions; in 1962, the same thing happened to Magnolia, Linden, and Lacey Streets.

None of this solved the parking problem. In fact, as early as 1925, a writer for the Daily Local News predicted "It is believed by some that the day is not far distant when the promiscuous parking of automobiles along our main streets will have to be stopped, or abridged, and some advocate a public parking station."

In 1938, the Borough built the first public parking lot on land owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad between Gay and Chestnut near Matlack Street. Parking was free, and the Borough hired an attendant for Saturday nights when traffic was at its busiest. After World War II, the Borough began charging for parking using 385 parking meters hat took pennies and nickels. a group of local merchants protested against the meters, but they stayed, and in 1947 Borough Council approved the purchase of vacant properties on Chestnut Street between High and Walnut for use as a parking lot, and in 1948, it became "the first municipally- operated metered parking lot in the Commonwealth." That same year, the Jefferis brothers built a private parking lot for 300 cars next to the West Chester Laundry, which they owned, just in time for the opening of the A&P Grocery Store on W. Market Street.

In 1949, you could park in a Borough lot for two hours with a nickel or for ten hours with a quarter. Despite the meters and complaints by local merchants, the parking lots were all successful (except for one at the corner of Barnard and Adams Street). By 1955, the Borough owned five municipal parking lots with 389 spaces, plus a total of 467 parking meters. The fine for overtime parking in 1956 was on dollar.