July 16, 1935

The first parking meters in the nation were installed in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The predecessor company to the modern-day Park-O-Meter, Inc. (or POM), which is headquartered in Russellville (Pope County), was co-founded by Carl Magee, designer of the world’s first parking meter. The earliest Magee-Hale meters were manufactured in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rockwell International, which moved its meter production to Russellville in 1963. POM, Inc., as constituted in the twenty-first century was organized in 1976 to purchase the parking meter production operations from Rockwell, as well as its Russellville plant.