To celebrate Enterprise Holdings’ 60th anniversary, we’re taking a look back at some of the company’s key milestones over the last six decades.

In early 1957, Jack Taylor was 35 years old and the sales manager for a suburban St. Louis Cadillac distributorship. He became increasingly intrigued by the relatively unheard of practice of leasing cars as an easy, convenient alternative to buying and owning a vehicle. Taking a gamble and a 50 percent cut in pay, the entrepreneur convinced his boss to let him establish an auto leasing business.

With a desk, a telephone and seven cars, the new venture was launched in the dealership’s lower-level body shop. By the end of that first summer, the fledging enterprise had leased 87 cars, and in the following 1958 model year, more than 275 cars were leased… and there was no looking back.

Here are a few key milestones from the decade:

1957

-Leasing operations begin as Executive Leasing with fleet of seven vehicles

1958-59

-Lease fleet grows to 200 vehicles

-Company offers full-maintenance lease option with insurance coverage

1960

-Lease fleet more than doubles to 500 units in service

1961

-Over 1,000 lease vehicles in service

1962

-Company adds Car Sales division

-Second location added

1963

-Rental car operations launched with fleet of 17 vehicles

1964

-Total assets exceed $5 million

-Third location opens

-Company briefly rents campers

1967

-Now-famous “roadway e” logo introduced

-Annual revenue tops $1 million; total assets surpass $10 million