By the 1920s autos were popular. Once a luxury item, with the advent of Henry Ford’s assembly line, cars were more affordable to the middle class and quickly took over for horse-drawn vehicles. Coarsey and Bowyer automobile showroom was the local distributor for Jewett cars, manufactured at the Paige-Jewett factory in Detroit. The cars were known for their heavy weight and speed and advertised as “getting away quickly from five to twenty-five miles an hour in seven seconds”. The dealership sold other brands of automobiles as well. The details in the Burgert photograph are hard to explain. Since 1924, historically the Coarsey & Bowyer House of Service was located at 510 Jackson St. Mentions in local newspapers exist through 1926 putting them at the Jackson Street address. There is no mention of their location on Franklin Street. Confusing information in the Burgert collection ledger however labels this as their showroom on Franklin and the sign on the window bears that out. The building housed Rawlins garage in 1920 and Oakland sales-also photographed here by the Burgert’s-in 1922.

The beautiful building is till around today and until recently housed CAVU, an event space. N. Franklin St., affectionally nicknamed in modern times Yellow Brick Row due to the color of bricks in most of the major buildings on here. The stretch of Franklin St was a haven for car dealerships and repair shops in the 1920s and 1930s.

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