KINGSHIGHWAY AUTOMOBILE ROW IN CITY OF CAPE

Cape Girardeau's auto dealers have turned Kingshighway into Automobile Row.

But it didn't used to be that way.

When Fred Groves began selling Fords in Cape Girardeau in November 1914, his dealership was downtown, at Broadway and Fountain.

Today, the Ford Groves dealership is on North Kingshighway. It is the oldest car dealership in Cape Girardeau, the second oldest Ford dealership in Missouri and the 16th oldest west of the Mississippi River.

Cars were a rare sight in Cape Girardeau when Fred Groves began selling them. There were 61 automobiles registered in Cape Girardeau County. Groves principal competition was a horse and buggy dealer in Jackson.

An official at a local bank, where Groves sought financing for his business, dismissed the automobile as a passing fancy. "It will never take the place of the horse and buggy," the banker told Groves.

But it did and Groves business grew.

The Ford Groves dealership moved to Sprigg and Themis in 1924. It was still there in 1981, when Groves died.

At one time, the downtown was home to new car dealerships.

But since the mid-1960s, one dealership after another has found a home on Kingshighway.

The busy thoroughfare is home to Ford Groves, Crown Cadillac Olds Nissan, Wieser Honda-Mazda, Auffenberg Chrysler, Cape GMC Pontiac, Cape Toyota, Coad Chevrolet and Van Matre Buick.

All but Ford Groves are bunched together on South Kingshighway.

Ford Groves moved to its new building at 1501 N. Kingshighway in 1989.

Bob Neff, who owns the dealership, said the business moved because it had outgrown its quarters on Sprigg, and there was nearly three times more traffic on Kingshighway. The company has expanded from 32 employees to close to 80.

Neff said car dealers have moved west as the city has expanded in that direction. "When Mr. Groves built that store on Sprigg Street, he was on the west side of town."

High traffic areas are important to car dealers, who depend on drive-by business.

Cape GMC Pontiac moved to a South Kingshighway lot in 1965 and soon others followed suit. "The factories want you to move out. They want you out on the highway where all the traffic is," said Darrell Brown, one of the owners of Cape GMC.

Jerry Wieser opened a car dealership on South Kingshighway in 1986 and quickly developed an auto park, where he sold several makes of cars, including Hondas and Mazdas. He sold the business in 1989, but in 1993 he bought back the Honda and Mazda dealership.

Wieser said car dealerships tend to be clustered together because it brings out more shoppers. "The more dealers you get together, the better the traffic count becomes."