I am interested to see what responses you may get. Good luck.

It's a horse stall from a stable house brought indoors. This history would be hard to track considering anyone needing to keep a horse within a close proximity of their house would most certainly be poor and their house has probably rotted away, burned down or been demolished.

But judging by sheer size alone, horse stalls are around 10' by 12' to 14' by 16'. I believe the standard is 14' by 14'. So, it's not hard to assume that the garage is an evolved stable considering that the "landed class" of the 19th century became the "landed class" of the 20th century.

There's a book somewhere out there on parking and traffic design that explores the garage pretty thoroughly. Forget the name but there wasn't very many pleasant things to say about it.

I think one part of the book said that the garage has in essence destroyed the western home as the first thing to be carved out of homes to make room for the garage was the parlor or formal receiving space. It goes on to say that houses would be better used if the garage was kept as a living space. There was also something in their that the garage itself became convoluted because of the introduction of home washers and dryers. It then says the garage took a further turn for the worst when American society pushed the concept of a home handyman (supposedly an idea that has never really existed anywhere in history-- i guess the point was unless you did it for a living, it's cheaper to higher someone else?).

I know the APA has recently published an article about various people reverting their suburban homes back into shop-owner-over-the-shop living situation and that garage space is essentially wasted potential profitable space.

Furthermore, I think another historical speculation here is that horse carriages have always "parked" parallel to let riders depart but typically never fully "parked." They either rode in circles around the area til called or were brought to a centralized stable to be put up for some time. In fact, a majority of cities or large estates use to feature some kind of centralized horse facility much in the same way some cities have centralized parking.

I think this is an interesting parallel that you could call a big parking garage traditional versus a garage which is a very untraditional concept in historical terms. I've noticed that more and more people are using or building detached workshops due to the fact that we're discovering that more and more common household goods are highly carcinogenic.

There's a book called The Architecture of Parking by Simon Henley.

rockandchill, I am really interested in that book you just recalled. please tell me asap when you do find out. The brief synopsis that you had provided me gives me some adequate arguments to make.

agfa8x, thanks for the book recommendation. i will look into it.

as for my research paper, I think I am interested in talking about the transformation of the garage. From a car garage to a "Hideout". What I see as of the garage now is a space not just for the living or whatever it can be, that's already a fact, but now it has transformed into a space for dirty deeds. It has transformed into more or less of a secretive space.

parking garages is not the topic of the paper. since it is a theory class in domestic architecture, it is focus on the house garage

The Automobile and American Culture, eds Lewis and Goldstein
includes a paper on the development of the garage in the context of the american suburban house.

ps. how can you come to such a conclusion without doing the research?

it's only a proposal. not a fact or conclusion that i have made since i have not found any sufficient research. BUT..I am choosing films to support my claim.