Front/rear/side driveways

[whatsername]

Here in Colorado lots of the new construction has an interesting take on the alley format. The houses are on the lot "backwards", that is, with the garage in the back of the house, on the street, and the front of the house on the opposite side, away from the street. I like it as it seems like a more efficient use of land, and you get the same feel as a backyard without the wasted space of a front yard. There is slightly less privacy, though, as your only yard faces the front of someone else's house in most cases, but that's the price you pay with how expensive housing is in town here.

 

[circlew]

I forgot to mention that on the next street over there is a house with a one-car garage that has a door in the rear in addition to the one in the front. My dad said this had something to do with the undeveloped alley that was supposed to be in the back. The house was built sometime in the early 50's.

 

[fan-of-fans]

The is one garage like that on my street, that has front and back garage doors. I thought maybe it had to do with storing boats and such on trailers in the garage, that way they could be put in the lake, if one backed the boat into the front door and then out the rear door.

Another thing seen here near golf courses is garages that have a smaller side door, for storing the golf cart, and then a small driveway leading to the main driveway in the front.

 

[gusherb]

Alleys were a thing here til the late 50s roughly. The side of the neighborhood where my grandmas house was, started in 1947 all had alleys. There's a mix of detached rear garages, and attached garages, most are driveway accessed instead of through the alley. My grandmas house had an attached single car garage.

Every house on this block has front facing garages except for this house and the one right next door, which are both front garages with side facing entrances.

 

[firedome]

garage location...

seems to vary a lot in different parts of the US, in the East on many older suburbs and city areas with single family houses alleyway garages were pretty common.
Our '50s neighborhood had a mix of backyard separate garages, front entry garages flush with the house facade, never protruding, and rear entry house garages with turnaround pads. Our family's house, and quite a few others had no garage at all, though we had a nice sized yard, in MD weather was mild enough you could get away without one, and cost was always a factor.

Last new house we built in '95 had a side entry 2 car garage, we didn't like the look of front entry, and we had 3 ac. and the space for a side entry driveway and parking area. My sister's place in Livermore CA has a 3 car front entry garage that totally dominates the appearance of the house, imo.