#the garage 1920

[myedwardianman]

Harry Hewitt McCoy (1893-1937)

[friendlessghoul]

Buster Keaton The Garage (1920)

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The Vanderbilt Garage, 1924.

Photo: Ralph Steiner via Invaluable Auctions

[busterkeatonsociety]

This Day in Buster…August 12, 1920

Australian newspaper, the Glenelg Guardian says of “The Garage”: (Luke the)”…dog has an insane role, and is instrumental in parting Buster Keaton from his trousers.”

[memoriae-lectoris]

Covered in asphalt or gravel, the area behind the house was “a utilitarian space where trash was burned, clothes were washed and hung up to dry, and unneeded household items were left to rust.” It was in front of the house that children played, in the yard or in the street, in view of the neighbors. The border between private and public space was the porous alcove of the front porch, a place for supervising those kids, flirting with a classmate in the respectability of the public view, snooping on neighbors doing the same, or adroitly greeting relatives or salesmen who weren’t quite welcome inside the domestic sanctum. […]

In the 1920s, the backyard began to supersede the front porch as the primary domestic outdoor social space. This switch would be accelerated by the arrival of indoor enjoyments like television and air-conditioning, as well as appliances like washers and dryers, which freed the backyard from its workaday purpose, but it began with the automobile. Prior to widespread car ownership, streets were multifunctional public places suitable for hawkers and markets, stickball games and snowball fights, the storage of construction materials, and waste disposal. The roaring car traffic associated with Henry Ford’s Model T cemented the street’s sole purpose as a thoroughfare. […] The suburban cul-de-sac was the fruit of newly widespread car ownership—and a refuge from it. In 1922, House Beautiful noted strains of front porch fatigue: “the increase in motor-traffic, the dust and proximity of other houses tend to make the front porch less desirable each year . . . One prefers [porches] turned away from the trivial drama of the street with its hucksters and milk wagons and gossip.”

At the Tenth National Conference on Housing in 1929, one speaker declared that the dirty old backyard, of all places, could be repurposed to offer “charm and sanctuary from a too noisy world”—away from “front porch promiscuity.” But it was less the question of how cars moved than of where to keep them that changed the shape of the American house. This shift from front porch to backyard coincided with the forward march of the garage, out of the backyard and into the house itself, as the car (later, cars) assumed its prime place in family life. Wright led the way. With his Usonian houses, a series of middle-class dwellings he designed beginning in the 1930s, America’s foremost architect invented a new word, carport, to describe an attached, sheltered overhang for car storage. […] He preferred the carport to the attached garage for the same reason he disliked basements: closed garages were likely to become just another place to gather household clutter.

Nevertheless, the implements of the closed, attached garage were all in place and awaiting the postwar housing boom. Overhead garage doors were commonplace by the 1910s, electric garage door openers by the 1930s. Early subdivisions may not have had interior spaces for cars—at the most famous of them, Levittown, east of New York City, the entire house was barely the size of a modern three-car garage—but the attached garage became de rigueur in the 1950s as mass-transit ridership plummeted and the car reinforced its dominance.

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]

the garage |1920| roscoe arbuckle

[justbusterkeaton]

*Wet (part two)

[melbmemories]

𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 - 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐢𝐜. c1920s

[blackpoolhistory]

A view of the Imperial Garage in 1925 on Dickson Road, North Shore. A Kwik-Fit garage now sits on the site.

[affiches-cinema]

Le garage de Fatty, 1920.

Dessin d'André Félix Roberty.

[myedwardianman]

The Garage (1920, Roscoe Arbuckle)

[friendlessghoul]

Buster Keaton and Luke The Garage - 1920

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Attractive 1920 Victorian in El Reno, OK. Love the turquoise, gray and white combination. 6bds, 5ba, $339,900 and the interior is amazing. Also, there are 2 homes on the property.

The 2nd home is above the 3 car garage.

It has a nice little entrance hall with original stairs, wainscoting and floor.

The sitting room has lovely wallpaper and a beautiful light fixture. If that roaring fire is real, it's incredible that the fireplace is functional.

I love a moody Victorian with original dark woods.

I like the wallpaper in the 2nd sitting room, also. The arrangement of all the furniture around the perimeter of the rooms doesn't do it justice.

The wall unit in this room looks like a built-in. One of these rooms has to be a dining room that they're not using as one.

The kitchen's cool. It's vintage and large, but I would probably keep colliding with the sink protruding out like that.

Look at that Aga stove. I have never seen one that big. They don't make them like that, it's a commercial hand-crafted one- the most you can buy retail is a 6 oven model and they cost $35K.

I wonder why there are 3 sinks in the pantry. The black one is cool.

In this rear hall is an office and sitting area.

The half bath is lovely and it's roomy, too.

This is different, the stairs are in the turret.

Not a bad bedroom, it's a little long and narrow, but nice.

This one has an en-suite, but it's not being used as a bedroom.

This one's kind of nice.

This room next to it looks like it has a bath behind that open door.

It's sort of a vintage bath that was updated a while ago.

A bedroom used as a closet.

Very nice and it has an en-suite.

There is another baths that was done with new tile, sinks and showers exactly like this one.

These are the stairs in the other residence above the garage.

It has a spacious living room and kitchen.

Plus a nice-sized bedroom.

And a 3 pc. bath.

The home kind of looks like it's on an island in a commercial area, but it's zoned for business. .40 acre lot.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/506-S-Evans-Ave-El-Reno-OK-73036/52543185_zpid/

[busterkeatonsociety]

This Day in Buster…July 15, 1920

Australian newspaper, the Bundaberg Mail, describes Buster’s bit in “The Garage” where he impersonates Harry Lauder “…is one of the funniest bits of comedy the screen has shown.” 

[cosyvelvetorchid]

“Home” for your BuckTommy prompts?

This is quite a cute one I think. Thank you 🩶

***

They sat in Tommys truck staring around the house across the street.

“Tommy?”

“Yeah?”

“I think we found our forever house.”

“I think we did, too, Evan.”

They’d been searching for over a year. In that time they’d gotten engaged and married.

Everybody said that they were being too picky, but they would always disagree. Yes, they had a list of non-negotiables but they also had a list of things they could be flexible about.

It had to have at least 3 bedrooms - that was non negotiable, but the two-car garage with a mechanics pit they could be flexible about if there was enough land that they could build one. It had to have a large yard with enough space for the kids - the 118’s and (hopefully) their own - to play in, and it definitely had to have a large kitchen because they both loved to cook, but it didn’t necessarily need to be on a cul de sac, nor did it absolutely have to have more than 1 floor. It did have to be within an hours drive for each of them to get to work.

They were close to giving up hope until they spotted this house a few days ago.

A 3 storey, 4 bedroom, 2 and half bathroom 1920’s home at the end of a quiet cul de sac. Built by a couple in 1927, and kept in excellent condition by them, and their daughter who owned it after them, who had recently passed away. It was definitely in need of modernising to their standard but it had a large garage at the back of the property with enough space for 2 cars and space to dig out a mechanics pit, 1 full acre of land filled with plenty of trees to build a treehouse in, a huge open plan kitchen diner, and basement big enough to house a gym. And it was almost equal distance to both 118 and harbour station, taking them both roughly 30 minutes to get to work.

Within 24 hours of viewing it they’d put in an offer and hoped and prayed and wished and manifested that it would be accepted.

48 hours later and they still hadn’t heard back from their lawyer. Buck was getting antsy, and the rest of the 118 were getting annoyed about him continually talking about it.

“Did I tell you it had these beautiful oak trees in the yard perfect for us to build a big tree house in?” He said as they drove to a call.

“Yes Buck. And a garage large enough to a mechanic pit.” Hen answered.

“And 3 bedrooms.” Said Eddie.

“And a waterfall shower.” Added Chim.

“Okay I know, I know I keep talking about but.. it’s going to be our forever house. And-and I’m just so excited that we might actually get it. I just.. I can’t wait to grow old with Tommy in it, ya know.” He rubbed the back of his neck a little embarrassed “I have this vision that I keep going back to of walking into the living room and finding Tommy asleep with.. with our little girl fast asleep on his chest.” He looked around the engine at everyone. “Okay you can laugh now know it’s stupid.”

“No, Buck it’s actually kinda sweet.” Chim told him.

“It’s beautiful, Buck.” Bobby added from the front of the engine. “Oh, heads up guys we’re almost there.”

Buck looked out the window and his furrowed his brows.

“What is it, Buck?” Eddie asked.

“I feel like I’ve been here before.. looks familiar.”

“Maybe we’ve had a call here.” Hen suggested.

“Yeah. It’s probably that.” He said, despite the feeling that he had seemed to suggest it was maybe more recent? As the engine turned the corner into the street that contained the fire, Buck suddenly realised where he knew the area from.

The engine came to a stop and he jumped out of down. The fire was blocked from view on the side of the truck they were standing at by an ambulance.

The ambulance drove away revealing the fire and Bucks heart broke.

*

Three hours later Tommy got out of the shower and checked his phone whilst running a towel through his hair. As soon as he saw the text from Eddie he threw on some clothes, grabbed his keys and ran out of the door.

He pulled into the cul de sac and parked behind the 118 engine.

“Tommy, hey.” Eddie walked over. “How many speed limits did you break to get here?”

“You don’t want to know. Where is he?” Eddie pointed his finger towards a car parked opposite the blackened, smoking remains of the house.

Tommy walked over to Buck who was leant against the side of the car, arms folded and a forlorn look on his face.

“Hey, sweetheart.” He said approaching.

“Tommy? What are you— Eddie texted you didn’t he?”

“Yeah. You okay?” He wrapped an arm around Evan’s neck and pulled him into a hug.

“Yeah. No. I.. It was the perfect house, Tommy. We’ve been looking for so long and I was giving up hope, and-and then we saw this place and..” he stopped himself.

“And what?”

“I actually kinda started to think the universe was listening and given us what we wanted. Like, it knew how happy we were and it knew that giving us our forever home would be the last piece. It’s dumb I know.”

“Hey no, baby. It’s not dumb. You were excited for us - that’s nothing to feel bad for.” He squeezed Evan tight and planted a kiss onto his temple before opening the hug, keeping one arm around his shoulder. They both stood watching Eddie hose down the last remaining hotspots of the building.

All that seemed to be left was the basement and half the 1st floor. Everything else was gone.

“I’m starting to think we’ll never find our forever home.” Evan said, sadly.

“I do.” Tommy said confidently.

“How do you know?”

“Because, Mr Evan Kinard-“ Tommy turned to face Evan and took his face gently in his hands “-wherever we live, no matter where it is, no matter if it has everything we want or nothing at all.. so long as we’re together, it’s home. It will always be home.

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]

the garage |1920| roscoe arbuckle