All these cars - where do we put them?
As the car worked its way into society, so did the need for somewhere to store it. And the result of that need, as described by an architect in 1912, was the creation of "a new type of outbuilding". People in those days thought of an outbuilding as a carriage house - the place where you keep your horse and buggy. Since a carriage house was a building that housed everything to do with your means of transportation, at first, cars were kept next to the horses, in the same building.
But there arose, shall we say, a stink about this situation. People who had cars in those days were usually of higher class than most, and to have their fancy new cars smell of horse manure just wouldn't do. So an alternative was sought.
The first garages were actually a lot like our modern-day parking lots, but with one level. People figured that if they could store more than one horse in a barn, then perhaps they could store more than one car in a similar structure. So they built large garages, some publicly-owned and some privately-owned. It became quite a business - they'd charge $15-$20 a month for a parking space. For your money, you'd get a parking space, along with about 100 other cars, in a heated garage that was maintained and cleaned by the owner. This system worked well until about 1910, when there became too many cars for the garages to accommodate.
Back to the carriage house idea
