The year was 1947

• The Cold War: Voice of America broadcasts are beamed into the Soviet Union
• Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American baseball player to sign in the major leagues
• The Marshall Plan begins the restoration of Europe following World War II

Meanwhile . . .

Automobiles were getting bigger, faster, more popular and more decked out. If it wasn’t massively chrome-plated and ultra-streamlined, then it wasn’t King of the Road in America.

It was 1947, a time of population shifts and the beginning of urban sprawl. Speed  became valued and convenience ruled the day.

Diebold saw how trends might affect the banking industry and consequently pioneered in the field of drive-in banking through a broad range of innovative customer service systems. The most impressive? Drive-through banking.

Whether you called it drive-through, drive-up or drive-in, the concept was the same. Do your banking business without ever leaving your vehicle.

An early concept was designed to accommodate both pedestrians and motorists. It was called the walk-up window, but a special concierge service available at some locations offered banking to idling motorists at curbside. A driver would pull into a standing lane where a uniformed bank officer would collect the customer’s materials and carry them to the walk-up window. Once the transaction was completed, the concierge walked the receipts back to the motorist who then drove away.

Soon, banks demanded dedicated vehicle lanes where motorists could pull up and transact their business directly with a teller by means of a remotely operated service drawer. That concept remains popular – and relatively unchanged – even today.

We have produced many drive-up teller windows, successfully advancing their appearance and utility. Flat windowed drive-ups turned into more of a bay window style. The reason?  According to one engineer who worked on them, “We extended the glass and added sides to it so the teller could sneak a peek and see how many cars were left in the line waiting to be served.”

In 1952, we promoted our 114-25 Drive-Up Counter Window. A significant refinement occurred in 1960 when we introduced our drive-up window equipped with a directional controlled deal drawer that could move in and out, but also up and down to accommodate customer vehicles of all sizes.