World War II, right in your backyard.
Well, in the Garage anyway.
Living history, and you might (like me) be living in it.

Yep. I live in a rented garage apartment. Unlike most of them here in town, mine was built AFTER World War II.

So let's dive in, shall we?

I bet you thought rationing was for: gas, sugar, flour, foodstuffs. It was. But...it also was for things like: rubber, wood, metal, and building tools. From 1941 until 1946, there was a moratorium on building for the Private Sector. You couldn't build a house. But, you could build a garage. Loophole!

So folks did just that. Backwards of what we do today. They built the garage first, and the house second. For the war, they lived in, above, or over their garages. But folks with money still wanted the best...so they built garages that were a "garage" in name only.

Some of these garages were two stories, with wrap around balconies, indoor plumbing, and even French Doors to the outside. Downstairs, well there had to be room for a vehicle and a garage door. But there wasn't any rule about making the vehicle space as small as a Model T, with another eight hundred square feet for living space.

Some of the garages were already there, and folks added a second floor to live in. After the war, so many families had lived in these garages that went from the bare basic living space, to damn near three thousand square feet monstrosities. (but still with room for a car downstairs!) That folks built houses in front of them and then rented out the garage to the newly discharged single young men. Or newly married couples after the war. Some made them into Mother in Law suites.

Here are some from my neighborhood. Some, as you can tell, have been pimped out to the max (am I allowed to say that?). Others look pretty much like they did during the war...just enough room for a bed, bathroom and tiny room or kitchen.

The one I live in, wasn't built until 1958...so it was post war. But the guy made it a copy of the one just down the street. And that one was built in 1943. The biggest and grandest of them in my neighborhood, was built in 1943 by the guy who was then the County Commissioner. He knew the letter of the law, let others deal with the spirit of the law. LOL

So here you go, a piece of World War History that lives on, or you live in!