4 South Main St.

The current building above was built on the site of a previous brick building constructed for Lee Bingham circa 1871. It had the same configuration, three business spaces below, with a meeting hall above. Frank Walter owned this building from about 1882 until 1885, thus the name for the second floor became Walter Hall as can be seen in a photo of that time (See Heritage pg.23). The hall could reportedly seat 400. The graceful street facade had the decorative elements of the Italian Revival Style; corbeled brick forming round-arched window hoods and brackets supporting the first & second story cornices. This graceful building burned in 1887/88. Historically, this was the site of some of Clarkston's earliest buildings. Horatio Foster, who according to the 1817 History of Oakland County., pub.1877, opened the first harness shop in the Village, was listed in tax records for part of this property, the north 1/2 of Lot 3 Block 1, in 1843. He purchased the property from Jeremiah III and Nelson W. Clark. Foster's will (he died in 1861) listed a 20' x 30' barn on the southwest corner of the west 1/2 of Lot 1 Block 1, a harness shop and millinery shop (24 & 1/2') on the southwest corner of Lot 2 Block 1, and a dwelling house on 20' of the north side of Lot 3 Block 1. It appears that all but the barn fronted on Main St. Phillip Foy owned the north part of this property all the way to East Washington Street as early as 1844. Foy had a fanning mill manufacturing shop on the property. Frank Walter had a store here when the building burned. Apparently the property was vacant (or mostly vacant) until the new building was constructed. Walter may have built a temporary building on the site in the interim. (See the newspaper item below). Walter also conducted business in a small shop behind his house at 23 South Holcomb and from a "peddling wagon". He was listed in the tax records of 1902 for the house propery and a piece to the west of it, while J. M. Clark was listed for this South Main Street site. A 1/01/1903 item in The Pontiac Post newspaper regarding a part of Walter's business reads " Few realize the fur that is marketed here. Last week Frank Walter sold 340 skunks, 1400 muskrats, 32 mink, 35 coon, 1 fox and 1 badger, over $600 worth." The current two-story brick building on this site was constructed in 1902/1903 under the auspices of the Clarkston Building Association. However, a 2/20/1902 issue of the Pontiac Post, "Frank Walter has started his new store which will be erected on the site of the present building." (Walter did not purchase the building across the street, 5 South Main, long known as the "Walter building", until 1919 so it would seem the item refers to this site.) According to an item in the 7 /31/1902 issue of the Pontiac Post newspaper, "Men and teams are at work on the brick block, excavating the cellar. For 15 years people have been waiting for this act, which is now assured of success." The entire street facade was originally built of clipper brick from Fort Street, Detroit. The brick work was finished in December of 1902. (Pontiac Post, 12/18/1902). This brick may still be seen on the second story of the street facing facade. The first story, which was remodeled ("colonialized") in the 1970s, originally housed three businesses on the first floor (see photo, Heritage pg.53). The circa 1907 photo, above, shows that Guy Walter & Company (grocery) occupied the northernmost section; Joseph H. Alger (hardware) was in the center. The U.S. Post Office moved to the southernmost section in 1903. (At the time John T. P. Smith was Post Master). A 4/28/1904 item in the Pontiac Post noted that Cruice and Doty had " a bean picking establishment" behind the postoffice at the time. A burglary of the postoffice was foiled in 1904 because " bags of potatoes and beans were in front of the windows" which were smashed. The second floor was a meeting hall/opera house, with a 40' high stage, dressing rooms and cashiers cage. Beginning in 1939, the Clarkston branch of the Michigan Bell Telephone Co. occupied a part of the second floor (10 1/2 S. Main). However the largest part of the space was used for dances, lectures, music performances, plays and other large community gatherings which residents, Guy Walter and Lee Clark were instrumental in producing. A newspaper item of 10 /31/1941 noted a Fall Festival and Country Store in the Opera House. This space had a tin ceiling which was removed in 1969 when the entire second floor was remodeled for apartments.. The north section of this building, 4 S. Main, in 1903, was occupied by Guy A. Walter & Co. Walter had done business reportedly in 1899 in a wooden building south of this site, in Floren Hammond's space. (Guy & father, Nelson, owned a site across the street at 9 S. Main, from 1908-1914.) In 1932, the business became Walter & Cutcher, but the name returned to G. A. Walter in 1939. (According to a 1938 newspaper item the "Opera House block (was) thoroughly renovated in a simple modern style" for G. A. Walter, J. H. Alger Hardware, and Gerald O'Dell Drugstore. "The Clarkston Building Association owns the building and expects later to improve the exterior of the second floor as well". These renovations were not described until 1941 when an article mentioned a new office was on the " balcony" of O'Dells. In 1941, Guy Walter sold to William Dunston who had started business in 1925 in the first wooden building to the south of this, 12 S. Main. Dunston's "Village Market" was sold to J. D. Powell in 1954 when Mr. Powell moved his business from Dixie Highway to 4 South Main. Gerald Hodge operated his Clarkston Bakery at 4 South Main, from 1957 to 1969 at which time this space and the one to the south ( 6 South Main ) became the Hallman Apothecary. Joseph Alger, and son, Roy, ran their store in this building, the section which was 6 South Main, from 1904 until 1967. A 1904 newspaper article in the Pontiac Daily Press described the interior: "There are high steel ceilings, plate glass windows, hardwood floors and a complete system of Ann Arbor lamps which light it like day. The counters and all woodwork is of southern pine." According to this article Alger was in the space which was formerly J. D. Ogden's. In 1969 this space and the one to the north were combined for Hallman Apothecary. The southernmost space,10 South Main, housed the United States Post Office when the building opened, John T. P. Smith, Postmaster. Later, Edwin F. Street's drugstore occupied this space. This became C. G. Huntley's, the "only drugstore in town" according to a 1932 C. News advertisement. Mr. & Mrs. Gerald (Rowena) O'Dell purchased the business in 1934 when it was renamed O'Dell's Rexall Drug Store. A Clarkston News article, 2/14/41, described the remodeled interior of the store with an "office on the balcony". A 7/26/56 article has photos of the interior. The pharmacy was purchased by Keith Hallman in 1965. Hallman had managed the business since 1953. Hallman remodeled the entire building in 1969.The southernmost space became a Richardson's Dairy ice cream parlor, then a restaurant, (the Clarkston Little Chef), followed by a pizza parlor. Today the Village Bakeshop does business in this space.