Walter Briggs, 84; He Once Owned a Parking Lot Empire
Walter Briggs, who once was among the biggest if not the biggest owner of automobile parking lots in the United States, has died.
His daughter, Kim, said this week that her father was 84 and died Sunday in Tulsa, Okla., where he had been living in retirement.
In the 1940s and ‘50s, Briggs either owned or operated the Saf-T-Park, Continental and Walt’s Parking lot operations in the Los Angeles area. He also at one time was the controlling stockholder of the Pershing Square underground garage. When it opened in 1952 it was considered the most ambitious parking structure on the West Coast.
Briggs--as secretary of the Auto Park Assn. of Los Angeles--was at the forefront of the parking lot operators’ battle against parking meters when they were in their infancy in the late 1940s. At the time, the lots were charging $1 for all-day parking downtown while it only cost a penny or so to use the meters for shorter periods.
In 1962 Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown named Briggs to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Board of Directors.
Besides his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Jessie, another daughter, Doris, and three sons, Timothy, Walter Jr. and John.
A funeral service is scheduled Monday at 1:30 p.m. at Forest Lawn Glendale.
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