Front/rear/side driveways

[fan-of-fans]

I was thinking about this. Does your house have a front/rear/or side entry driveway/garage.

I notice a lot of the older houses here have the alley way in the back and the garage is in back with rear facing doors. I think that's a really cool setup. You don't see that anymore.

Some of the older homes with garages and no alley tend to have the garage or carport in the backyard with the driveway beside the house.

I also kind of like the corner lot setup where you enter from the side street and the garage or carport is on the side.

Then in the 1940s and 50s the garage was in front, then around the 70s I notice houses start having the driveway in front but the garage comes in front of the house in an L shape and the door is on the side. I think this is considered a more deluxe setup, with newer homes from the 90s until now this is on houses with bigger lots.

 

[joeekaitis]

Front

That’s the Subaru in the driveway. Wife parks the Honda in the garage.

 

[countryguy]

Live in the country with a long, uphill driveway...garage on the left of the house.

 

[lordkenmore]

I also like the old style garage off of alley approach, although one only sees that in old neighborhoods. We had that in a couple of houses we lived in when I was young (the newest house was probably built around 1940, but the alley/street system was probably older). On the other hand, my grandparents house (built around 1940, too) had a garage attached to the house, with the door in front, and a short driveway to the street. I don't recall any sort of alley behind that house. But they were in the snow belt, and it's possible that by the time that area of town was built, someone decided alleys weren't the most practical things to have in that climate.

 

Most houses around here now have a garage in front, attached to the house.

 

My driveway runs beside the place I live. It's a bit odd in that it runs a long ways back, and connects to a "road" (basically little more than a rough path that car can drive down) connecting several parts of the property. (It's not a single family property--so the entire property is bigger than my immediate area.) There is a carport off the driveway, right behind where I live.

 

[circlew]

My neighborhood has a mixture of types. My own house (built in 1952), has the single-car garage in the basement level, and it is entered from the left end. The driveway from the street is a T shape, with parking for two cars on the one side.

The house to the west of me (1968) has a U shaped driveway, and the garage is also in the basement, but is entered from the back. The one to the east (1985) has the garage on the first floor, and is entered from the side on the right. Some of the older houses on my street have detached garages, and a couple have none.

Around the corner, some of the houses built around 1900 have the garage off an alley. There used to be more alleys, but the ones that weren't paved were abandoned in the early 60's, with the property going to adjoining owners. Many were just on maps, and never used. I was told by older people that the alleys were used for delivery of milk, ice, coal, etc., as the delivery person usually went to the back of the house.

 

[DADoES]

 
"Hidden" rear-entrance garages aren't found locally but a friend in DFW area lived in two neighborhoods with such.  One looked to date to the 1970s, the other 2000s.

I'm on a corner lot with driveway entrances at both sides and detached garage set slightly back from the house to a breezeway and wrap-around back porch/patio.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I really hate ours:

('Cause it's too narrow & can't get past the gate!)

-- Dave

 

[dermacie]

My house was built in 1968 and in our neighborhood houses on the right side of the street going down have front integral garages one or two car with a driveway. Across the street left side of the street those houses have garages in the back.

So one could essentially choose when building but you had to pick a lot that would accommodate it per SE.

 

[circlew]

I should have mentioned that all of the houses in my neighborhood were built by different people over a number of decades. The oldest is from around 1900, and the newest built 2014.

 

[cornutt]

The neighborhood we lived in when I was a young child was a '50s neighborhood where most of the houses have rear entry garages. The driveway led to a turnaround pad behind the house, which almost inevitably wound up doing double duty as a basketball court. There was a small pad off to the side that was intended for parking a second car, but back then most families only had one car and usually that pad wound up being the foundation for a shed.

 

[wayupnorth]

It all has to do what you can do with what you have. My driveway resembles Gary's but is much more steeper but downhill and in the winter it is impossible to keep the snow down with a snowblower. My garage is full, so truck has to stay outside. I just want out of here in the winter but be here in nice weather.

 

[xraytech]

I live in the country, my house was built in 1946 and has a side driveway that wraps around back of the house to a detached 2 car garage. My home is the only one in my neighborhood like this. Most are 1950s homes with an attached 1 or 2 car garage facing the front, except the home on one side of me has a drive on the side of home that wraps around to the back to a 1 car garage under the home.
On the other side of me is a large early 60s Executive Ranch with a side driveway that has a 2 car attached 2 car garage with the doors on the side of the house.

 

[parunner58]

<span style="font-size: 12pt;">My house i had in PA was built in 1955, my side of the street the garages were all on the back of the houses and the other side of the street they were on the front.  My house here in Fl its on the front of the house</span>

 

[polkanut]

Our home was originally built in 1925.  In 1962, the previous owner added an attached 2 car garage, breezeway, basement rec. room, office/dinette area, and a bedroom.  The garage faces east and is on the side of our house.  We share a road with the factory next door who actually owns & maintains the road.  The whitish area towards the bottom of the aerial photo is the cement area in front of the garage.  The road is gravel.

 

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[twintubdexter]

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I always like these posts that show a glimpse of the outside of members' homes. I get jealous with all of the "green"...the trees and forest-like properties. The amount of space between the houses is often a real luxury too. In my little community of 66 homes, all the driveways are a short, straight shot to the garage. Originally, you purchased the lot in here and had the outside of the home (the elevation) designed the way you wanted but with many restrictions, pretty much just traditional or Southwest styles. The homes all look a little different. With the interior you basically had a free hand which is why in many cases you walk into a house and say "OMG, what happened?" I think most people don't have a lot of architectural savvy. </span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">No picturesque drive to the front door here...</span>

 

 

[supersuds]

By the way, Joe, is this your Wildcat pictured in an article on an automotive history website?

http://https//ateupwithmotor.com/model-histories/buick-riviera-1966-1970/

 

[twintubdexter]

Sorry for taking this thread off track...

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">That looks like my car but I didn't put it there. It's probably from the guy who I bought it from who did the years of restoration. That photo on the website looks like the All-GM Car Show in Woodland Hills CA. I know he entered the car there at least twice. I have only shown my car once at a very small show in a neighborhood park here in Palm Springs. I did none of the work so I really don't have anything to brag about. Anyone can buy a restored car.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Woodland Hills a few years back. The <span style="text-decoration: underline;">owner</span> won First Prize.</span>

 

[petek]

I found it rather odd when we bought our first house in Calgary (built early 80's) that the whole neighborhood and many of them there all had back laneways/alleys which is something I thought had gone out of fashion decades ago. To me it seemed like wasted space. I'd much rather a deeper backyard, house setback farther and a driveway off the street.  Back alleys also cost a lot for the city to maintain and aren't usually the most attractive.  

 

Here though I don't think there are any back alleys anywhere. Most houses have a side or front driveway. 

 

[mikael3]

Our 100-year-old neighborhood had alley access to every house at one time, but most alleys were closed in by backyard fences over time.  I wish we still had our alley, but we don’t.  Our driveway is narrow and we share it with our neighbor.  The driveway slopes down sharply, so the parking pad in the back is on the basement level!  The next big project is to the extend the back of the house and turn the parking pad into a garage.  Hope springs eternal!