Continuity mistake: When Warren parks the squad car at the bus stop, as he gets out of the car note the long whip antenna is attached to the bracket over the rear passenger door, but when it cuts to the closeup the whip antenna has vanished. (00:21:25)
Revealing mistake: When the bus pulls up for the Taylor family to leave for Hollywood you can see behind the bus a California freeway with cars moving in both directions. I don't think that Mayberry had a freeway right outside town. The scene is fixed when they return in "Aunt Bee on TV." There has been a tree put there so the road wouldn't show.
Answer: As noted in the previous answers, in real life, things like this provided wind and/or rain deflection, and also maintained a bit of privacy when blinds were raised somewhat. The interior courthouse set was located in the studio, so the "outside" Main Street didn't exist. I believe these things were added to the courthouse windows for practicality, to avoid some crew movement being visible on the opposite side of those windows. These are not "window boxes" to hold anything, as they're actually bottomless; we can see the Venetian blind's long pull cords under them. They're made of plywood and simple to build, so the "material and labor" was inexpensive. Similar variations made of different materials are in other movies/shows. In 1957's "12 Angry Men," textured chicken wire glass panels are in the jury room windows, and in "Jesse Stone: Night Passage" another type is in Jesse's office windows.
Super Grover ★