The doors are normal sized for the Little People.

And for the record, that street is Red Hook, not Carroll Gardens.

Red Hook? Dennet Place? I realize that neighborhood borders can get cloudy, but I don't think so. It's clearly Carroll Gardens. The BQE is the divide. And what a jarring divide it is. There's no denyin' it.

Maybe you are going by some pre-BQE border? If so, that's awfully old-timey of you!

Ah, I used to live on that block- it's a pretty narrow street. The first floor is half underground so most of the doors aren't short but you go down some steps to get to the front entrance. There are some "hobbit" doors though- why those were ever built will forever be a mystery to me.

Yes, the term "Hobbit" was in use before then. But mainly around the Shire.

win

I'd like to know if the term "hobbit doors" is something locals use, and if so then for how long? Was this term in use before the popularization of Tolkien via the Lord of the Ring blockbusters?

they are obviously not the original stoops, ant the streets have been paved many times (prob originally a dirt road since the size of the street). FIrst floor of a brownstone is the basement, 2nd floor is the parlor. These houses originally had an entrance into the basement (1st floor) half underground back in the day when the street was at a lower lever. Obviously you cant raise the height of the first floor so during alterations (probably in the 40's or 50's) a smaller door was put in. The people doing the renovations didn't want to spend the money and time to dig a few feet down and put in a small staircase. These small doors are just a quick fix.

In general many oddities of buildings in NYC are related to the heating technology of the day. Prior to zoning laws, the only thing that really limited building size for instance was this factor. It wasn't until technological advancements in ship boilers for warships during WWI that oil furnaces existed that could heat huge highrises. Then, the only limiting factor was how big the oil tank could be (none of this applies to buildings proximate electrical plants and the steam grid).

With coal, you had to store a lot of it as trucks couldn't come every day. They used horse drawn or push carts. Then you had the ash that had to be stored. For big buildings, you needed staff shoveling coal 24x7.

But, this is what cellars were for in those days. These homes might be $1MM today, but they were built for poor families - the poorest of the poor. That extra cost to build the building a little higher just wasn't worth it to the developer.

I grew up in a brownstone (built around 1830) in Cobble Hill, and while we didn't have a door exactly similar to the ones pictured, we did have a slightly smaller door below the stairs which led into the basement. We were told that the door was used to bring coal and supplies into the house. Since the basement is actually a half level below the street, it seems like a perfect way to take in deliveries.

Not only were people thinner back then, clearly they were shorter. Goddamn hormones in everything these days...

I believe those may be coffin doors - in the Victorian era it was unlucky to pass the dead through the front door. Most people died at home, and had home funerals back then....

I had one in a place I lived in in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Could the street level have been raised at some point..? It's the case other locations.

Isn't there a part of manhattan that has a block like this? People have asked me about it before, something along the lines of "isn't there an area/neighborhood, in manhattan that is/was where "little people" live, the houses are supposed to be small too?"

Fact or fiction, anyone?

You're thinking about Sylvan Terrace in Washington Heights:

http://www.bluejake.com/archives/2004/10/26/jumel_mansion_and_sylvan_terrace.php

They were probably put there for storage under the stairs.

That's what I had always assumed.

Those were not retail shops. The doors were there for getting coal in and out of the cellar.

Excellent deduction!!!

Clearly they were for the Oompah Loompahs. I don't know what you are thinking with your "coal cellar" theory.