Bell Avenue, not West Belle Place, is really just a wide alley in between the old Vandeventer Place and Windsor Place. This carriage house is the only remnant of what had been a cluster of mansions and expensive homes in the area. Why it survived when so much was lost is a mystery to me. What is interesting is that the house that possessed this “auto house” was relatively small compared to other houses on Windsor Place. The garage is at 3815 Bell Avenue.
AMAZING that this survived! I am currently researching Vandeventer Place for a project with the public library and have not come across any information that #53 Vandeventer Pl owned the carriage house on Bell. But it does make sense that since they could not expand their carriage house behind the mansion, they would purchase the lot on Bell to house space their automobiles.
Chris,
An ad offering 53 Vandeventer Place for sale in the Globe-Democrat of December 14, 1902 mentions the carriage house across the street on Enright Ave. I too had discovered this building several years ago and wondered the same. Just confirmed it today in doing research on Vandeventer Place book that Tom Grady and I are putting together. I wonder if it’s still standing now?
Interesting! I’ll have to go check it out soon.
No, it’s not Enright Ave, it’s Bell Ave. Behind number 53 is an alleyway named Bell Ave, Enright is on the south of Vandeventer place. I am 99% sure this cariage house was belonged to number 53 because from the old map, number 53 has no cariage house within the main house , and it’s cannot be John Davis mansion at 51 because 51 already has its cariage house within the main house.