Asheville's First Motor Mile - Coxe Avenue and the Dealers that made it!

Heath Towson
Aug 11
2 min read

Coxe avenue, named for famous Asheville developer, Col. Frank Coxe is known for being Asheville's first automotive district. To learn more about the creation of Asheville's first "Motor Mile", read the introduction to Coxe avenue and its development on our blog here:

Asheville Car History: The Beginnings of the Coxe Avenue Motor Mile (mountaineermotortours.com)

In this blog, we want to cover as many of the dealers and their owners as possible. In addition to all of the cars and buildings that have come and gone on this storied avenue, there are still many buildings from this era that still remain. Come along and take a walk down the avenue with us!

Our walk down the avenue begins at 50 Coxe avenue, right at the corner of Coxe and Aston Streets. We'll cross through Banks and Buxton streets (don't worry, we'll explore some of the repair shops and automotive history on these side streets in a later blog) and end down at Southside Avenue.

50 Coxe Avenue: The Richbourg Motor Company Building (ca. 1926)

The Richbourg Motor Building was built in 1926 by Frank and Tench Coxe and was leased by John Ashcroft Richbourg. They began by selling Ford and Lincoln automobiles. Richbourg later sold the Ford franchise to Raymond Matthews in 1938, who would move the business to 100 Coxe avenue in the Sawyer Motor Building. After selling the Ford franchise, Richbourg would go on to a career in politics. The Hunter brothers bought the building in 1938 and opened Parkland Chevrolet in this building. They ended up staying in the building until 1970, when Parkland opened Chevyland out on Tunnel Road. It then was then rented by the Sure-Fire motorcyle parts company, until a terrible fire destroyed the building in 1984. The site is now the location for Buncombe County Air Quality and the County election building, next to Buncombe County DSS.

75 Coxe Avenue: Harry's Used Cars/Norm Sultan Tires & Recapping

94 Coxe Avenue: B&B Motor Company, later Deal Buick

100 Coxe Avenue: The Sawyer Motor Building (ca.1925-1926)

101 Coxe Avenue: Deppe Motors

120 Coxe Avenue: Service Financing Corporation, currently the Sawyer Motor Building Annex

133-145 Coxe Avenue: Robinson Brothers Automotive

144 Coxe Avenue: Dennison Motors - Packard and Studebaker

162-164 Coxe Avenue: Conabeer Motor Building (ca. 1928)

170 Coxe Avenue: F&G Motors, now part of NC Minerals Research Laboratory (ca. 1949)

180 Coxe Avenue: NC Minerals Research Laboratory, circa 1947 and continues to this day

185 Coxe Avenue: Skipper's Restaurant (1940's), Man and Mac's Restaurant (1950's), and the Princess Drive-In Restaurant (1953) Bob Ledford's Used Cars/Daniel Boone Motors

192 Coxe Avenue: Asheville Transfer and Storage Building, Manor Motors Ltd. (Foreign Car Center of Asheville) (ca. 1929)