To say that Bill Douthett III has a history with Main Street in Butler is an understatement of epic proportions.

The third-generation businessman has worked jobs ranging from a door opener at his family's clothing store to a section manager at Gimbels department store in Pittsburgh during the Christmas season.

He's been a business owner, landlord and civic leader through it all as well. And the family name is so intertwined with the history of the structure at 108 Main Street that it's known simply as The Douthett Building. That's fitting for the place that's been home to a Douthett-run business of one kind or another for most of the past century.

As for Douthett himself, who in 1936 at the age of 7 opened his first door for a customer and earned a penny every time he did so, Main Street has been a home away from home — perhaps more than he would have liked sometimes. After all, he noted wryly, running a business isn't the easiest thing to do with your time.

“I spent a lot of time there, there's no doubt about that,” Douthett said. “A lot of time when I was the only one there.”

Back in 1936, when Douthett's father, Bill Jr., was in charge and pennies seemed like a windfall, it didn't seem likely that Douthett would end up here at all.

As high school progressed Douthett's father had pushed him to become a lawyer. But he opted instead to attend a one-year program at the University of Pittsburgh's retail school, where he earned a Master of Letters degree — the 1950s' equivalent of an MBA.

Douthett spent the year, along with his classmates, working in department stores around Pittsburgh, landing at Gimbels, where he spent the Christmas season working as a section manager for the store's first floor.

For Douthett, who had spent his high school years working part time at the family's clothing store in Butler, it was a change of pace, to say the least. Gimbels had made its name on aggressive promotional efforts, which were unusual for the time, and Douthett felt the full force of that during the holiday season, when part of his job was to help open the store's doors to customers each day.

“The concept was the same, but the store itself — they were nothing alike,” he said. “The department store sold everything — they had anything you could imagine.”

But one thing Gimbels and Butler had in common, Douthett said — and his favorite part of the retail business — was the people. Douthett's face lights up if you ask him what a good shopping day in Butler looked like 50 or 60 years ago.

“On a Saturday in downtown Butler you almost had to elbow your way through the crowd to walk up the street,” he said.

For the Douthetts, who bought the building at 108 Main St. in 1941, the next several decades would mark the golden age of the city's business community.

The Douthett Building was remodeled shortly after the family purchased it from the bank, and the family launched full-force into the old school model of retail: glistening glass displays to draw shoppers in, and eager salespeople to help get them what they wanted.

Douthett said the model worked not just with shoppers, but with employees as well. He can count three or four people who each spent 50 years working in the family's business, and one that spent 37 years employed at the clothing store.

To this day, Douthett said, he keeps in touch with many former employees and in general relishes the chance to catch up with familiar faces when they appear in The Store on Main.

“That's been one of my great pleasures over the years,” Douthett said. “Seeing the guys come back and stop in for a visit and say they remember working here.”

In 1972, Douthett sold the clothing store to a New Kensington-based department store company.

About 10 years later another tenant moved in, but the business remained a men's clothing store until 1993, when Douthett's sister, Jeanne Wilson, and her husband had an idea.

Wilson and Douthett agreed to turn the building into an antique minimall, renting space to more than a dozen dealers and selling their wares for them.

Several years ago Wilson and her husband retired to New Mexico, leaving Douthett to manage the business — a charge he relishes.

It is, after all, the hallmark of his family. Douthett said he's always thought of business as a way to earn trust and respect in Butler — and the weight of the responsibility handed down to him by his father and grandfather made a serious impact on him.

“I wanted people to be able to say 'He did something.' I think we all had ... a vocation in the sense of being called to do that,” he said. “Making a bundle of money was never the reason I was in business, and my father and grandfather thought about it pretty much the same way, I think.”

Now, after 80 years of working in the building that bears his family's name, Douthett is leaving — for good this time.

Later this month the businessman will say goodbye to Main Street. He's sold the building and his current business there, The Store on Main, is currently in the midst of a two-week closing sale.

Douthett said he made the decision to sell for a number of reasons, among them his age — he's 87 years old — the changing nature of the antiques business, and the opportunity presenting itself after two years of the building first going on the market.

“I've worked in that building for 80 years. There's some emotional involvement, of course,” Douthett said. “There's a lot of family pride there.”

But he's also practical about ultimately stepping away, and said he doesn't regret the move — it's just the next decision any savvy businessman would make.

“I don't know what I'm going to miss the most — I was there almost every day,” he said. “All good things come to an end.”