Today it is called the Walnut Building but when it was built in 1927 it said very plainly high up on the front, and also projecting out on the corner in big letters: Freundlich.
Built as a department store by Louis Freundlich on the eve of the Great Depression, the business staggered during hard times but survived until Mr. Freundlich suddenly died at the age of 38. Then it became the Montgomery Ward department store in 1937. When Wards moved out to Park Avenue West in 1963, this building on the corner of Third and Walnut turned into Reese Optical; and was subsequently remodeled to the office building we know today as the Walnut Building.
