This photo diary explores the ordinary, everyday residential garages of single-family homes. The garages are located in Fremont and Queen Anne, two of Seattle’s urban neighborhoods, and were photographed between 11:00 and 12:00pm on Monday, April 14th.

In all of the garages I photographed, there were three main types: the boxlike ones that were freestanding and located in the alley behind the house; the boxlike ones, still detached, that were in front of the house and accessible from the main street; and the ones which were attached, tucked in and integrated to match the house’s façade. These three garage types actually evolved in this same order – the first two were built around the time of First World War, and the last were implemented close to two decades later, after World War II. This progression, as J.B. Jackson puts it, shows ‘the domestication of the garage.’ By this time, he says, the garage “had become thoroughly domesticated, an integral part of home life and the routine of work and play. On its wide concrete apron – often occupying a third of the frontage – the family car is washed and polished every Sunday, and on weekend afternoons the young of the family shoot basketball. What the stork’s nest on the chimney of the northern European home traditionally signifies”, he concludes, “the basketball backstop over the garage door signifies for the American home: a leisure-oriented domesticity.”

I noticed, in my own exploration, that garages are not simply the places to park our cars. In fact, I regularly saw cars parked in the driveway leading to the garage, with the car’s nose nudged closely up to the garage door. And when the garage doors were open, I was more likely to see a boat, tools, garbage cans, a lawn mower, or a kid’s trike than a car. It seems that the garage has become a “family center, half outdoors, part work area, and part play area.” We have either adjusted the house plan to meet our updated lifestyle, or else (as we have with our basements) we have expanded our living spaces so much that we are spreading out into the space once designated for vehicles. In fact, some of the owners of freestanding garages took advantage of the top surface and designed them replete with plants, picnic benches, and barbecues, converting the roof of the garage into an extension of the front yard. I also noticed that people personalize their garage doors with as much enthusiasm as their window boxes or front yard gardens, using them as spaces for artistic expression and a bit of whimsy. It seems that the multipurpose garage has become “an integral part of our new, leisure-oriented living.”