. . . he would turn to approach his house

[shootingstar]

STAGE MANAGER: . . .
- That's Doc Gibbs. Got that call at half past one this morning. And there comes Joe Crowell. Jr., delivering Mr. Webb's Sentinel.

DR. GIBBS has been coming along Main Street from the left. At the point where he would turn to approach his house, he stops, sets down his - imaginary - black bag, takes off his hat, and rubs his face with fatigue, using an enormous handkerchief.
. . .
(Thornton Wilder, Our Town, Act I)

What is the meaning of would there, respectively, what does would express there?

 

[SoothingDave]

This is where he would turn if he was walking home.

 

[shootingstar]

This is where he would turn if he was walking home.

Thank you. So you take it to be Conditional II (imagined conditions), right?

 

[SoothingDave]

I'm not up on the lingo. I'm just saying that you could re-word it as "where he normally turns." Except he didn't turn, he stopped momentarily. He certainly continues on walking home after he wipes his face.

 

[probus]

Like @SoothingDave I don't know the nomenclature, but "would" there indicates what he usually or habitually did rather than imagined conditions.

 

[Barque]

I'd say that that sentence by itself doesn't tell us that he actually did turn towards his house. He may have or he may have continued walking straight if he needed to go somewhere else. The place where he stopped was the place where he would have turned towards his house if he was walking home.