April 21, 2024  

1924 Auto Wash Bowl – A Piece of Automobile History

Auto Wash Bowl

This once innovative car wash stood at the northwest corner of Chicago’s 42nd Street and South Michigan Avenue. This is how the operation appeared in 1924.

This photo made me realize that this was another one of those things that I’d just never thought of, but found fascinating. In the days before modern conveniences like power washes, they had much worse things to wash off their cars. Back in this early age of motoring, roads were often unpaved and muddy, and that mud would get caked on the underside of the car and the wheels – but a spin in the nifty Auto Wash Bowl took care of that.

The nearly 80-foot-wide, ridged concrete bowl was about 16 inches at its deepest point in the center. Customers paid 25 cents to an attendant who strapped a protective rubber cover over the radiator. Patrons would then enter the bowl via a ramp and drive their cars around and around the bowl at a speed of about 10 miles per hour. The ridges in the concrete would vibrate the car and the water, creating a sloshing action that helped wash away all the mud from the chassis and wheels. The whole process took about 3 or 4 minutes.

Sadly, the Auto Wash Bowl wound up being little more than a novelty as car-washing technology evolved. Just two years later, the North Side wash bowl was bought by a local realtor, the South Side wash bowl was gone by the ‘30s, and the Auto Wash Bowl went down the drain.

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About Reed Brothers

I am a co-owner of the former Reed Brothers Dodge in Rockville, Maryland. Lewis Reed, the founder of Reed Brothers Dodge was my grandfather. We were a family-owned and operated car dealership in Rockville for almost a century. I served in the United States Air Force for 30 years before retiring in the top enlisted grade of Chief Master Sergeant in July 2006. In 2016, I received the Arthur M. Wagman Award for Historic Preservation Communication from Peerless Rockville for documenting the history of Reed Brothers Dodge in both blog and book format. This distinguished honor recognizes outstanding achievement by writers, educators, and historians whose work has heightened public awareness of Rockville’s architectural and cultural heritage, growth and development.

2 responses to “1924 Auto Wash Bowl – A Piece of Automobile History”

  1. Edward F. Hyman's avatar
    Edward F. Hyman says :

    At the former General Motors Desert Proving Ground in Mesa, Arizona was a large 100ft (ish) diameter circular “brake bath tank” similar to your 1924 Auto Wash Bowl. About 16in deep, it was used to soak the drum brakes of test vehicles prior to stopping distance tests. Obsoleted for test purposes years ago, we still used it to wash off trucks coming in from off-road testing until DPG closure and sale in 2009.

    Reply
    • Reed Brothers's avatar
      Reed Brothers says :

      Hi Edward,

      I never knew the GM proving grounds were located there, thanks for sharing that information.

      Best Regards,
      Jeanne

      Reply

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