MTFCA Forum

Another forum topic asking about sheds for Model T storage got me thinking about early solutions that were offered for the same problem. I recall an article long ago about a manufacturer of small buildings that weren't much more than large boxes that were sold as kits. They were billed as the budget-minded solution for the storage of a Ford or other small cars of the time. Sears or a company like it may have also sold kit garages. I sometimes see small wooden garages along old roads that I am sure were sized and built orginally for a Model T or other some other short wheebase teens or 20's car. Often they have later extensions built on the front or the rear to accommodate the longer cars that followed. Does anyone have any favorite pictures of these, either period of survivors?

My first house was built in 1913 and had a Model T-sized detached garage with a dirt floor. In 1953 a group of kids put an extension on the lower half at the rear to hold a larger car. All of the kids signed their names and ages inside "This here carriage house."

Reviewing Sanborn insurance maps for local communities show a transition from carriage and stable to garages from 1900 to 1930s.

Here are some pictures form a mid 1920's kit home catalog.

Search Rusk Auto House.

There is a teens/twenties pre-fabricated steel garage at the Gust Akerlund photography studio/museum in Cokato, MN. It can be seen at the right in the photo below.

Gust Akerlund also owned a 1924 Ford Coupe which still survives and is in the posession of the Cokato Museum and Historical Society (although they refer to it as a 1923).

https://www.cokatomuseum.org/akerlund-studio.html

Mailorder House & Garage registry https://dchousesmarts.com/2012/05/the-g ... -the-mail/

The garage in my Cape style house in Boston was not much bigger. It was a standard "3rd" of the basement garage. My F150 never fit in it and working on my Edsel I could only open one door fully if I put it on dolly's and slid it sideways. Had to park it depending on what end of the car I wanted to work on with the door closed.