Sacred Oaks porte cochere|Dripping Springs, Texas

Porte Cochere \.pȯ rt-kō-ˈsher\ (French: “coach door”)

 coach gate or carriage porch is a porch- or portico-like structure at a main or secondary

entrance to a building
 a passageway through a building or screen wall designed to let vehicles pass from the street to
an interior courtyard.
 a roofed structure extending from the entrance of a building over an adjacent driveway and
sheltering those getting in or out of vehicles.

in Western architecture, either of two elements found in large public and private buildings,
popular in the Renaissance. A porte cochere, as the French name indicates, was originally an
entrance or gateway to a building large enough to permit a coach to be driven through it into
the interior courtyard beyond. These gateways are common features of homes and palaces
built during the reigns of Kings Louis XIV and XV of France.

Later, the term was applied to a porch roof built over a driveway at the entrance to a building
(usually known as the carriage porch). This roof had to be large enough to accommodate a
carriage or other wheeled vehicle, since its purpose was to provide shelter for those getting in
or out of the vehicle.