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The Johnston-Porter Building

circa 1888

The Johnston-Porter Building, located at 77 West Main Street, was built in 1887 and is the oldest surviving commercial structure still in use in downtown Franklin, NC.

Jackson Johnson built the west side which now houses Talbot Realty in 1887 and sold the eastern half of his lot to R. L. Porter, who built a similar structure, attached to Johnston's east wall in 1888. Early occupants of the Porter Building, which now houses our firm, included the Franklin Press which moved upstairs two years after it started publishing in 1886. R. L. Porter's mercantile establishment downstairs sold a variety of dry goods including clothing and boots.

According to Franklin Press, the "eastern half remained in the Porter family for many years, eventually going to Baldwin and Liner, who sold it to Henry D. West in 1946. At the time of the sale, it housed the Dryman Feed and Grocery on the main floor, and apartments upstairs."