SF question - Tiny Windows of Mystery

Last time I was in SF, I stayed at a friend's place in Portrero Hill (sp?), on Connecticut.

I noticed that all over the area (which seemed like a fairly average SF neighborhood), the houses had these little tiny windows, often somewhat above a reasonable outdoor/sidewalk eye level, and often near a garage or front door. I mean these windows are tiny - like 6 inches wide and three inches high on average, though there were also round ones, square ones, etc.

We could not for the life of us figure out what these were, though we discarded some theories -

1 - For meter readers to look in (except no meters were visible inside any of the ones we checked)
2 - For residents to check that nothing is blocking their garage door before swinging it up (except some were positioned where this would be impossible, and others had the mini-window, but no garage at all)

Some places even had two mini-windows, one on either side of the garage door. My friend has had her place there for several years, but she had never noticed the tiny windows in the area (and hers was one of the few on her block without one).

So, any help? What on Earth are these odd little windows for? I don't remember ever seeing them anywhere else in the US ... TIA ...

 

They're there to make sure there's no bears outside...

 

i'm sorry Miami, i've lived here for almost 20 years and have no idea what you're talking about.

Potrero hill is the next neighborhood too. i'm looking in my street and don't see any tiny windows.

i suspect what you saw was native to Potrero Hill. The hill has been gentrified into yuppyville. The only problem is that it's surrounded by low-income housing (aka projects). Rough neighborhood where OJ was raised.

You probably saw gun ports.

 

I think OJ prefers to use knives...

 

I'm guessing they are nothing but decoration to try and match the garage with the style of the house. I used to go to school in that area but I haven't been there in a long time so I kinda know what you're talking about. I don't think they're for the guy to read the meter since the meter is usually no where near the windows. Bears are in Berkeley so I don't think it would be for those.

 

It's funny, it took me a while to notice the first one, but then once we started, they were everywhere!

Some on old-original buildings, some on rehabs.

C'mon, somebody has to know this answer - It's making me crazy!

If anyone gets a chance, go down Connecticut, look closely, and you'll see more than a dozen of them just in the last block of places before it ends in the mini park (apparently gang-owned, I assume from the nearby projects with the fecking amazing views over the city).

(Incidentally, I was VERY pleased to see that the nearby Mississippi St. was planted with [thriving] Magnolia trees!)

 

What a cool little urban mystery! I used to live on 18th near the corner of 18th and Connecticut. Inexplicable little windows were one of many architectural mysteries of the home and 'hood. I'll be there this weekend and will take a look around to see if I can remember anything. My friends who live on the Hill now are really into the history of the area, so I'll ask if they know the purpose of the little windows. IIRC my home on 18th had a series of small triangular windows on either side of the garage door. I assumed they were simply to let light in. A lot of the Victorian-era homes in SF feature "light wells," shafts that exist only to permit natural light to hit the windows where the sun normally wouldn't. Maybe they're something like that?

While it's true that the "wrong" side of Potrero Hill is very dangerous, especially if you don't live there, it's also true (and sort of amazing) that there's almost no "spill over" of crime from that side of the hill to the yuppie side. It's almost as if there's a physical cultural wall at about 21st street. When I lived there, I never felt unsafe at night on my side of the Hill. I'm over there a lot these days and it's still the same. One of the safer areas in SF, actually. The area at the base of the Hill has experienced very rapid change during the past three years. A lot of tech biz is there now, a lot more good restaurants, and a huge Whole Foods just opened there.

Anyway, I'll see if I can take some photos this weekend. Cool post miami.

 

I don't how relevent this is but there were a lot of those small windows up around where my parents live in Washington. Low to the ground, implying that there could be a basement etc. My parents have a similar design without a basement but they do in fact have a small crawl space that the light shines into. They have four small windows that I don't even think open but I'll ask my dad if he knows why they were built or what the point is.

 

A few more things ...

1 - They don't light any higher or lower level - They could hardly be intended for light at all, they are SO small there'd be little point in putting in such a small one - Most are the same or shorter top-to-bottom than the thickness of the wall.

2 - They're not former mail slots - sometimes there was also a mail slot, but both were obviously original.

3 - Whatever the purpose, the glass seems to be original - It doesn't look like they were originally open and had glass added later.

4 - It was hard to tell for sure whether they were intended for peering in or out, but they did generally seem to be sorta peephole-looking ... but, why?

 

any pics?

 

I didn't take any, I assumed I'd be able to find the answer on line easily ... but no ...

 

Perhaps there used to be a meter behind the windows, but the plumbing has been moved. Lots of old houses in SF have been remodeled/modernized and the plumbing and gas lines sometimes get moved. Maybe?

 

I'll tell you, as unsatisfying and halfass as it is, we could not come up with anything better.

One factor possibly in favor of this - IIRC, while 90+% of them faced directly out toward the street, every so often there would be one mounted in the side of some structure, facing along the street instead. This was so rare it was hard to draw conclusions, but it did seem to noodge us toward a 'peer-in' rather than a 'peer-out' explanation.

 

Weird. I walk up two steep blocks of Connecticut Street from 18th to 20th every day on my way to work and never even noticed these before.

 

As in "never noticed these before ... until now," or as in "still not yet"?

Like I said, it took us a while, but once we started seeing them, there were lots 'n' lots. That last dead-end block of Conn. had houses from all eras, and about half seemed to have the windows.

Do y'all think I should pose a link to the question in Whatever, or will anyone likely to know see it here?

 

I checked Google Maps' "Street View" to see if I could capture examples, and wouldn't you know it? Connecticut Street is the one in the area that hasn't been photographically mapped. I tried the place I used to live at, and there's a dang garbage truck in front of the house LOL. I checked surrounding streets and couldn't really find examples of what you're talking about. There were lots of garage doors that had windows on them, and in some cases little vents with fancy grills on them that might have looked like windows. There were some odd windows but none that were really small, and none that didn't seem to have a purpose. Again, I'll check if I can get out there this weekend, but am stumped for now.

Oooh, Bianca gets to go to Goat Hill Pizza for lunch, and see that cool vintage "His Master's Voice" doggie in that messy window up the street.

EDIT: Is this an example of what you mean? (528 Connecticut)

 

Yep ... That's one for sure. Most of them were rectangular, that one's square, but yep.

Now, if they were all placed like that, I'd've assumed they were to check for obstructions before raising the garage door, but quite a few could not have served that purpose.

 

Cool, hopefully we're gettin' somewhere with the mystery. I'll be sure to bring a camera when I'm out there next.

 

ah. Weird. I was thinking of something else.

 

I'm a very proud, third-generation San Francisco native -- born and raised and still here. I can solve this mystery for you. A lot of these residences you're talking about were build during the 1920s-1940s, as previously underdeveloped areas became a flurry of construction (WW2 put the brakes on that for a few years, and then we got another boom) -- these tiny windows provided a daytime light source for people stumbling down into their generally dark garages (and saved on people burning lights all of the time. Remember the depression and the war made resources scarce or expensive and people wanted economical solutions). Of course, at night, you'd simply flick the light switch before you'd stumble downstairs

I lived in one of these houses out in the deep Sunset (44th Ave @ Quintara), and that's what I was told these "windows" were for by some old timers, around twenty years ago (they were the first owners of some of these houses). While I've never seen any concrete documentation on these little light portals, so the story makes terrific sense, considering the historical context.

 

Ooh, and there we go.
Mystery solved!

 

Thank you for the insight, August. Terrific post. Well I'm going to try to take some photos of these little windows soon even if we have our answer. Interesting to read that they're also in the Sunset district, but then that neighborhood, like my own (the Inner Richmond) was largely built up during the cited decades.

 

I see them all over the hill now and was going to bring my camera to take shots on the way to work but, you know, didn't. Looks like August's got the answer though!

 

First, I'm really tickled that some people who have these in their neighborhood, but had never noticed them, now see them everywhere. Just one of the things that would have literally been impossible to share with y'all or ask about pre-Net, and every one of you will now see SF just a little bit differently ... forever!

Second, thanks August! I was hoping we'd hear from someone who'd heard from the original owners.

Third, I am happy to have an explanation from old timers (your sources August, not you ... ), but am still a wee bit concerned about urban legend issues, where a plausible or attractive story will most often drive out the true one. One reason is that not all of these were next to garage doors, I swear I think I remember seeing one placed in a fence (with no roof beyond). And, I can understand one builder deciding that this was a good way to bring daylight into a garage (wouldn't be the single dumbest thing a builder ever did), I have a little harder time with the ubiquity - I mean, if the point is to bring daylight into a garage, first why use one, tiny window, and second, why on Earth put it at eye level? Wouldn't clerestory windows, higher up at the ceiling or larger or both, bring in 10X more light (and make 10X more sense)? Like I say, if these were all in one man's development, then a somewhat idiosyncratic plan would make more sense, but I'd've expected dozens of builders over many blocks to come up with better. (I mean, these houses, especially many of the 'carpenter craftsmen,' have so many other deeply clever and surprising features and builtins - I've seen mailboxes the size of a laundry hamper built into walls, milk and ice delivery cubbies likewise, fascinating little phone niches, it just is counterintuitive to me that such clever guys would all try to light garages this one feeble way.) Seeing them in person, I got the sense that they were something that was at some point required by some entity - Gas company, water mater reader, whatever, some of 'em were squozen in pretty awkwardly - The 'peephole-osity' of them was just too strong in person for me to toss that concept out quite this fast.

If anyone finds any more references or sources either way, though, please let's hear 'em? And yeah, at this point more pics might help too ... I'll try Google Earth in a bit.

Edit - One 'midway' solution does occur to me - These don't make much sense for general garage lighting ... but, maybe they were not intended for general lighting, but only to light one specific purpose - I.e., to light the tiny area where the garage mechanism handle/switch/whatever is located? Still doesn't explain a few examples we saw, and doesn't get rid of my hunch they are for peeping in one direction or the other, but maybe some had been structurally reworked to such an extent that the original placement was lost.

And, of course I very much appreciate August sharing the story, which might well be the only explanation there is -- I'm a serious skeptic by nature, and this seems to me like an explanation that is most plausible only if we assume our ancestors were idiots about building, and that's rarely a good bet.

 

Edit - OK, I'm using a borrowed Mac and sadly I have no clue how to mark/clip/paste/manipulate pictures on a Mac ...

Google Earth does show several of these - the vast majority do seem to be next to a garage, and the newest construction doesn't have them, so I assume whatever the need or requirement was, it either is, or is perceived to be, gone.

To see a few examples of what we're talking about, try this link (you'll need to open it in Streetview, if it doesn't pop up that way) -- http://tinyurl.com/5vszjd.

Then look at the west side of Texas St. - Start from 524 Texas and go south, there are 6 or 7 there on the west side within a block or two (some on the east too, but it's in shadow and much harder to see them). 536 Mississippi has a double one, and 606 Wisconsin has one, but no garage. What a pisser that Connecticut St. is almost the only one in the area omitted from StreetView!

I seriously LOVE Google Earth, y'know?