Richard Murphy/Walter Walker House
430 S. Almont Avenue
Circa 1883
This home was built between 1883 and 1884 during the late Victorian Period. It is a two-story, red brick, Queen Anne home that displays many design elements traditional to the style including asymmetrical massing and fenestration, a variety of window shapes and sizes, a wide front porch, elaborate barge board, and a complex, multi-gabled roof line. A large, two-story, red brick addition dating from around the turn of the century stands to the back of the house. The home’s interior, apparently enriched at the time the addition was built, remains intact in floor plan and finishes. A red-painted wood barn with a gable roof and vertical siding is located at the back of the property and is original to the house.
The house is notable as the home from 1896 to 1923 of local grain elevator operator Walter Walker, a leading businessman in Imlay City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Walter and Sarah Walker secured the house in May of 1896 as the result of a trade with carriage and wagon builder Richard Murphy and his wife Arabella. (The Murphys then moved to the Walker house on Main Street.) The Walkers made extensive repairs and in August moved into the house.
The Richard Murphy/Walter Walker House is one of the two finest Queen Anne houses in Imlay City. It is listed on the National and State Register of Historic Places.