The Story

In December 1915 Williams Brothers announced plans for a modern automobile operation in the west room of the Frank Livery and Undertaking Company's building on Vine Street, converting a horse barn into a car business.

The newspaper explained the change plainly: automobiles had reduced the demand for boarding horses, and what horse business remained could be accommodated in the livery building to the east. The first floor was planned for automobile display and demonstration. The machine shop would occupy the second floor, and a 6,000-pound elevator would carry automobiles between floors. The new quarters were to be steam heated throughout — a modern building in the most literal sense.

The 1917 Sanborn fire insurance map shows the result: a building marked "GARAGE — Capacity: 30 CARS" standing immediately beside a working "LIVERY" in the same complex, the horse era and the automobile era sharing one address.

Williams Brothers remained until March 1922, when the firm moved across Vine Street into the Begley building, discontinuing its garage operation while continuing machine and repair work. The move cleared the west room for J. J. Frank to improve the building — and for Garner Brothers, an automobile firm just getting started, to move into the quarters Williams Brothers had outgrown.