The New Urbanism movement has mourned the loss of the front porch for some time. Part of the premise of this is that the rise of the car, caused the demise of the porch. Older homes in older neighborhoods were close to the sidewalk and a front porch was a place to sit and talk to your neighbors as they walked by. Subdivisions of the seventies began moving the home away from the street, added a long driveway where cars could park and the porch shrank to be nothing but a stoop where guests stood waiting to be allowed entrance to the home. Large wrap around porches were replaced with double garage doors as a main feature on the front of the home. The car as your way out of the neighborhood became more important than the porch as a connection to the neighborhood.
