ICA is governed by a board of directors made up of exceptional industry leaders. The association is managed by a professional staff based in Wheaton, Illinois USA. Both groups maintain a singular mission: to support the car wash industry and strengthen our community of retailers and suppliers.
Car washing has been around almost as long as cars themselves. In 1900, Milwaukee inventor Skerritt V. Hanley filed a patent for a "Vehicle-Washer," (pictured here) and by 1907, one of the first Automobile Laundries was operating in San Francisco. These early shops were mostly manual and labor-intensive, but they grew quickly as driving became a way of life across the U.S., Australia, and Europe.
Everything changed in 1946 when Paul's Automatic Auto Wash opened in Detroit. Using Leo Rousseau’s new “Minit Man” system — complete with a conveyor, brushes, vacuums, and blowers — it is largely recognized as the first fully automatic car wash. LIFE Magazine featured the wash the next year, and the idea took off.
By the 1950s, car wash operators identified a need to share ideas and learn from one another. California pioneer Robin King founded Auto Laundry News and helped organize a meeting in Mexico City that led to the creation of the American Auto Laundry Association. The group held its first convention in 1956 in New Orleans and soon set up its first headquarters in Detroit.
As automation spread through the 1960s, the association expanded its reach and over the next two decades, united different corners of the industry under one community. It changed and/or simplified its name several times, landing on the International Carwash Association in 1986.
