The Penner Building is a two-part commercial building with a store below and office space above, one of the nineteenth-century buildings that still represents the look of old Main Street. Its Victorian pressed brick front, face brick sides, and zinc-plated steel cornice preserve a Victorian theme. Conrad Penner, born in Germany in 1862, came to Downers Grove in 1894 and opened a shop on Curtiss and Main Street, where he sold horse harnesses, saddles, horse robes, whips, fly nets, brushes, combs, lap dusters, other horse-related items, stock food, kow kure, and bag balm. About 1920 he moved his shop to this building after buying it from the Diener family for $6,500 and added the Penner name to the top. He soon expanded to meet changing needs by selling Montford and Sterling tires guaranteed to last 5,000 miles, and he added shoe repair along with work shoes and children's shoes by Endicott-Johnson, advertised as shoes that would "wear like iron." After more shoe stores opened in the village, Penner retired and closed the business he had operated for 30 years. He died in 1949 after living in Downers Grove for 55 years and was buried with his family at Oak Hill Cemetery. Since his retirement, the building has housed several different shops, reflecting changing times in the village, while the name PENNER has remained on the building as a reminder of Downers Grove's early days.