Workshops and Sanctuaries

One thing we’ve learned from members of the Hemmings Nation over the last few months: their garages are their sanctuaries. Dozens of the World’s Greatest Readers sent in photos and descriptions of their safe places, along with the treasured vehicles that occupy those buildings. What was interesting was the diversity in the shapes and sizes: everything from nicely equipped, personalized two-car garages to full-on dedicated shops with places for entertaining friends or hanging out and watching a race. What was also interesting was the commonality in the messages we received: our garages make us happy. We couldn’t agree more. When the outside world seems full-on crazy, we find a little sanity tinkering with our projects or just pulling up a chair and admiring our vehicles under the glow of our shop lights. The garage is the place where we get to live in a world of possibilities surrounded by the stuff that makes those possibilities materialize: our tools, our knickknacks, our art, and, of course, our favorite machines. Perhaps it’s us, the garageheads, the collectors, the DIYers, and the tinkerers who are best able to cope with the tough times, because we know that we’re building, maintaining, or preserving something of value that will outlast us. A sort of message in a bottle to some future car enthusiast who gets what we were trying to accomplish and hopefully passes that message on. It seems our garages have also prepared us for times when it’s inadvisable to leave the yard — like during a pandemic. In the words of Hemmings reader Richard Nash: “My wife says I’ve been social distancing for years.”

If you’d like to share your home garage with Hemmings readers, we’d love a few photos and a description for possible publication in a future issue. Email them to mmcnessor@hemmings.com.

Brian Smith planned to build a dream shop for many years, but with a busy career and frequent job transfers, he wasn’t sure he’d ever own the right building to make it all happen.

“I had scoured swap meets and hauled my collection of vintage shop cabinets from state to state, two-car garage to two-car garage, never having the wall space to utilize them,” Brian said. “The cabinets just stayed wrapped up and I quit hunting for them, saying to myself, ‘What is the use? They will just sit next to the others waiting for garage space I will never have.’”