The Story

Garner Brothers moved into the former Williams Brothers quarters at the old Frank livery barn in 1922. The firm was Homer L. "Honkey" Garner and his brother Alva A. Garner. Alva sold his interest to Homer in March 1923, and the business became Garner Motor Company.

The garage dealt with water before it dealt with wind. In June 1923 the flood that inundated downtown Poplar Bluff swept six feet of water through the building. The 1924 Sanborn map shows what Garner made of the property: room for 75 automobiles, electric lights, stove heat, concrete floors, steel trusses and iron posts — a full automobile plant in a building that had begun as a livery stable.

Garner Motor Company sold and serviced Chrysler and Plymouth automobiles and advertised itself as an automobile headquarters for Southeast Missouri, with its address listed at 418 Vine Street in mid-1920s directories. Homer Garner had worked in the automobile industry since he was fourteen and became one of the region's major automobile distributors; he died in 1990. Under later advertising the Vine Street business traded as Honkey Garner Motor Co., offering used cars, body rebuilding and wrecker service.

On May 9, 1927 the tornado that struck Poplar Bluff blew the second story off the Garner Motor Company building and damaged the first floor. Two months later J. J. Frank began restoring the building as a two-story structure — a restoration rather than a replacement, which is why the building photographed in about 1941 and the storefront standing at the corner today still carry the proportions Garner's customers knew.