"Auto Row." In the early part of the 20th century, every city had one—a stretch of town where the new car dealers concentrated their showrooms.
The term was in common use by the 1900s and appears to have been coined in New York City, where "Automobile Row" once stretched along both sides of Broadway between Times Square and Columbus Circle.
In McKeesport, "Auto Row" could have applied to about four square blocks of Downtown between Fifth and Ninth avenues along Walnut Street.
Almost Every Make on Walnut Street
The period right after World War II was probably the heyday of "Auto Row" in McKeesport and other American cities. As factories cranked out tanks, airplanes, munitions and other defense needs, new-car production stopped in 1942 and didn't resume until 1945.
By 1946, a car-starved American public was desperate to buy—and there was plenty to see Downtown.
Starting at the Palisades Ballroom on Fifth Avenue (home of Palace Garage, a Nash dealer) and walking toward the old post office at Ninth and Walnut, it would have been possible to purchase every make and model offered by the "Big Three" of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. There also were dealers selling new cars from such forgotten companies as Hudson and Studebaker.
Along a two-block stretch of Walnut Street between Shaw Avenue and School Street, for instance, car shoppers could have browsed at Eger Motors (Ford), Standard Auto (Chryslers and Plymouths), McKeesport Sales & Service Co. (Studebaker), Superior Cadillac Co., and Baehr Brothers (Dodge).
Just a block or two off of Walnut Street were Galen & Jones (Plymouths again, plus De Sotos) and Kelly Motors (Hudson).
At the corner of Market Street and Seventh Avenue, were Palmer's Garage (Pontiac), while Booth Motor Co. (Chevrolet) and W.W. Hunter Co. (Buick) faced off across opposite sides of Sixth Avenue, near the Penn-McKee Hotel.
Of the major brands on sale in 1950, only the Oldsmobile dealer wasn't Downtown. Bruce Browne Co. was located in the lower 10th Ward, along West Fifth Avenue.
Moving to the Suburbs
What killed "Auto Row" in McKeesport and in other cities? Primarily the growth of the suburbs.
As new houses were built in White Oak, Elizabeth Township and West Mifflin during the "baby boom" of the 1950s, the car dealers naturally followed.
In addition, cars, more than any other consumer commodity, require a lot of "shelf space." While Downtown was crowded, and land was expensive, the suburbs provided plenty of vacant farmland that could be purchased and paved.
Auto retailing also changed. When customers paid cash for their purchases, they often special-ordered their cars weeks in advance. Dealerships needed only a few vehicles on hand for demonstration purposes, so showrooms were small, sometimes holding only one or two cars.
But the "easy credit" era that began in the 1950s meant that customers no longer had to save for a new car—they could put down a small payment and finance the balance.
From Special Orders to ‘Drive it Home Today’
It became more necessary for dealers to have a large stock of new cars on hand to tempt buyers who wanted to "drive one home today."
McKeesport's Chevrolet franchise—purchased by Paul Deveraux Sr. in 1954—moved out to Eden Park Boulevard a few years later, to "Devy's Chevyland," "the big lot with acres of cars," as the radio jingles said. The Dodge franchise soon joined it.
Those larger new-car dealerships also required bigger capital outlays. Many smaller dealers were unable to make the shift, and closed.
Besides Devereaux, the Mon-Yough area in the 1960s had other Chevrolet dealers in Braddock (Superior), Clairton (Gumbel), Duquesne (Schreiber), Turtle Creek (Beyerl) and West Homestead (Clark).
All except Beyerl would close before the end of the 1970s, and Beyerl moved out of Turtle Creek's downtown area and into the suburbs—specifically William Penn Highway in Monroeville.
Oil Embargo, Steel Collapse Speeds Decline
Outside pressures beyond the dealers' control also forced many to close. The Arab oil embargoes of 1973 and 1977, for instance, sent American motorists searching for more fuel efficient cars.
They found them at the new dealerships that sold Volkswagens or Japanese imports, and those dealers were generally located in suburban commercial areas, not in old downtown business districts.
Finally, the decline of steel manufacturing in the Mon Valley caused double-digit unemployment and massive population losses.
In other words, many people left, and ones who stayed couldn't afford new cars.
Naretto City's Last Downtown Dealership
The last new-car dealership Downtown was John Naretto Buick. The dealership at 725 Lysle Blvd. had previously been Tube City Lincoln-Mercury, Sullivan Buick and Levine-Jones Buick.
But in 1989, Naretto moved out of the aging facility at the foot of Coursin Street to a larger, modern dealership on Route 48 in White Oak. The old building was torn down a few years later and replaced by a Rite Aid Pharmacy.
Many Buildings Survive
Many of the other old dealership buildings Downtown survive.
Sunray Electric Supply Co. on Walnut Street owns two of them—its warehouse was once Standard Auto Co. Chrysler, while its showroom was the home of Superior Cadillac Co.
The old Baehr Brothers garage—which once retailed Studebakers and Dodges—is now home of the Voice of Vision Thrift Store and has apartments upstairs. Studebaker’s "turning wheel" logo can still be seen in the terra cotta along the building's roof.
Booth Motor Co. on Sixth Avenue is now the home of Tube City Appliances, while Eger Motors houses Pozzuto & Sons Plumbing.
The city still hosts two new-car dealerships, though neither is located Downtown.
Appropriately enough for a historic blue-collar American community, however, McKeesport's dealerships sell two historic American blue-collar brand names—Chevrolets (at Tom Clark on Route 48) and Fords (at Tri-Star Motors in Olympia Shopping Center).
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New Car Dealers, 1950 Buick Cadillac Chevrolet Chrysler De Soto Dodge Ford GMC Trucks Hudson
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Lincoln-Mercury Nash Oldsmobile Packard Plymouth Pontiac Studebaker White Trucks |
New Car Dealers, 1960 NOTE: PHONE NUMBERS ARE INCLUDED FOR INFORMATIONAL AND RESEARCH PURPOSES. THEY ARE NOT CURRENTLY VALID. PLEASE DO NOT CALL THEM. Buick Cadillac Checker Chevrolet Chrysler De Soto Dodge Ford Imperial
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Lincoln-Mercury Oldsmobile Plymouth Standard Auto Co. Pontiac Rambler Skoda Willys (Jeep)
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New Car Dealers, 1970 NOTE: PHONE NUMBERS ARE INCLUDED FOR INFORMATIONAL AND RESEARCH PURPOSES. THEY ARE NOT CURRENTLY VALID. PLEASE DO NOT CALL THEM. Buick Chevrolet Chrysler Dodge Ford |
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Lincoln-Mercury Plymouth Pontiac Toyota Volkswagen
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