The Pontiac Commercial Historic District is located just north of where the Saginaw Trail crossed the Clinton River.

After the Civil War, he was selected in 1865 to represent Oakland County in raising subscriptions for the Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in downtown Detroit.

He practiced law on the 3rd floor, overlooking from his 10-foot by 10-foot (3.0 m) north-facing window the rapid growth of Pontiac's Downtown Commercial District.

The building's central tower once displayed, in raised masonry letters, the name of its builders, the locally prominent Crofoot family.

The Crofoot Building's three 20-foot-wide (6.1 m) bays and two stories of street-level store and second-floor office uses originally formed and still retain the urban pattern of 19th century Pontiac.

The Crofoot Building is arguably the largest physical survivor of Pontiac's original plat and of its brick nineteenth century architecture.

The Vernor's Building illustrates another thread in downtown Pontiac's urban formation: the single 20-foot-wide (6.1 m) Victorian facade completely remodeled in the 1920s boom.

In 1926, the building was remodeled to house a Vernor's Ginger Ale Soda Fountain; and its distinct brick second-floor was obliterated in a quickening of urban intensity, to form a two-level open storefront (Photo 2 ).

The new facade emphasized its large window openings on both floors, surrounding them with a dark cider-colored brick frame, trimmed with limestone, and iced on the top with a pressed-metal entablature.

Their heights were equalized, their second-floor windows were ruthlessly reset, and their combined street facades were wrapped in a skin of porcelain-metal panels (Photos 6,7), exemplifying another stage in the development of downtown Pontiac.

[2] The Crofoot has played host to countless live events and gatherings, including appearances by Michelle Obama, Bill Cosby, John Waters (filmmaker), and shows from Attila (deathcore band), Lupe Fiasco, JPEGMAFIA, Twenty One Pilots, Chvrches, Upon A Burning Body, Jimmy Eat World, Deadmau5, The National (band), Girl Talk, The New Pornographers, Owl City, Sufjan Stevens, Will Oldham, Above and Beyond, Craig Owens (musician), Stars, Paul Van Dyk, Band of Horses, Vampire Weekend, 3OH!3, Bon Iver, King Crimson, Trevor Dunn, St. Vincent, The Avett Brothers, Public Image Ltd., Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, EELS (band), Flyleaf, Lindsey Stirling, Of Mice & Men (band), Sammy Adams, Black Veil Brides, Rodriguez, Cody Simpson, Machine Gun Kelly, Sick Puppies, Motionless in White, Bad Books, We the Kings, Enter Shikari, We Came as Romans, Miss May I, The Wombats, Morning Parade, LCD Soundsystem, The Front Bottoms, Caravan Palace, Dying Fetus, and Killswitch Engage.