5 South Main St.

Long known as the "Walter Building", this brick Italian Revival style building was constructed in 1877/78 for the Howe brothers. Henry H. and James P. Howe bought the property in 1877 from Reuben and Nelson W. Clark. Originally a part of the Clarkston mill property, according to an Oakland County Atlas, pub., 1877, Nelson W. Clark had a store in 1842 in a large frame building "which at present is used as a store by the Howe brothers". The Howe brothers also did business in a wooden building on the northwest corner of S. Main & Depot Rd. The Howe brothers had a dry goods store on the first floor of the new 5 South Main brick building while the Clarkston Grange was deeded rights to a portion of the second floor. Hay scales are noted on this site in the abstract of title. (Henry H. Howe and Emma, his wife, lived in the house built for them at 91 N. Main.) The 5 South Main St. property changed hands three times before Frank Walter bought it in 1919. Walter began his grocery and dry goods business using a horse-drawn wagon (see photo, Heritage, pg.53), and a small wood frame store behind his home at 23 S. Holcomb (see photo, Heritage, pg.51). In the 1880s Walter was listed in tax records for the large building which was on the site of the Maccabee building which now stands across the street, 4, 6, 8 S. Main. That building was originally built as Bingham Hall, owner Lee Bingham. When Walter owned the building the second floor was known as Walter Hall. (Frank bought a home at 18/20 Buffalo about 1915 where he lived until he died in 1929.) The Walter family, Frank's son Louis, then grandson, Ronald, and his wife, Virginia, continued to operate the business for the next twenty years. Ronald was an attorney who had his office in a portion of the second floor, while Walter's Department Store occupied the first. (In 1937 the business was an agent for the Pontiac Laundry according to newspaper ads). An interior photo of 1910, Heritage, pg.52, shows Louis and his sister, Mrs. Grace Cambrey tending the wares of Frank Walter & Son Dry Goods, Footwear and Groceries. Later some interior changes may be seen in a photo of Louis inside the store, Heritage, pg.64. In 1960 Genry's Colonial House, furniture and gifts, opened here. When it closed in 1964, Auten Furniture moved in to the space. Clarkston Lumber's Do - It - Yourself Center occupied the space in the fall of 1966. The owner of the Clarkston News purchased the building in 1966. (See a Clarkston News article of 2/23/1967 regarding Clarkston newspapers.) Architecturally, the Main Street facade of the building has changed little since it was constructed. An Italianate style building, the second story corbeled brick frieze; brick engaged pilasters which separate the openings on both stories; and round - arched windows and window hoods are elements typical of the style. The doorway on the northeast corner of the Main St. facade was altered in the early 1990s when the original door was removed. Traces of the original second story windows which matched the existing ones on the second story of the street facing facade may be seen on the south facade.