Even if a house didn't have a basement they dug one.
It became exceedingly popular in the 1920s to dig basements and upgrade the home to CENTRAL HEATING since you could remove the more dangerous pot belly stoves from the interior living quarters.
The garage in the back was not earlier a "stable" ~ folks kept their horses at the livery down the street somewhere (since they were rich and didn't need to take care of a personal horse).
This structure was built for use as a coal receiving dock because one of the upgrades to the new basement for the coal furnace was to keep a good supply of UNFROZEN coal on hand. This structure protected the coal lumps from freezing AND kept the thieves out.
Think of it as having more the nature of an oil or gas tank than as a garage.
As home heating systems have changed, the coal bin has been converted now to use as a garage.
The "chute" is still there somewhere ~ and all you need to do to make that access useful is put a stairway on top.
BTW, I almost bought a house designed by Frank Loyd Wright (located on top of a hill in Martinsville, IN). Even had the custom kitchen cabinets ~ and a really nifty coal bin chute which was accessed from the large, capacious garage on the side of the house away from the main and side entrances. Alas, the former "estate type" front lawn was now a public park with a noisy swimming pool.
The electrical system was 1920s circa ~ typical of numerous old homes in small towns throughout Indiana ~ one of the first places in the country to have totally wired city living.