Malcolm Reid store moves into 1880s Rundle Street east, Adelaide, complex built for South Australian Company
The Malcolm Reid furniture store in Rundle Street east, Adelaide city, in 1936 (at left), with the 1880s building (including the Austral Hotel) complex South Australian state heritage listed and still carring the store's branding in the 21th Century. At right: The Malcolm Reid store in King William Street, Adelaide city, still trading at Reids furniture and carpets in 1960.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
The Rundle Street east, Adelaide city, building still branded as Malcolm Reid Furniture in the 21st Century was South Australian state-heritage-listed in 1986 due to its earlier link with the South Australia Company, a key pioneering commercial enterprises of European settlement.
The buildings complex from 187 to 207 Rundle Street was erected in the early 1880s for the South Australian Company. Architect William McMinn designed the 14 shops and a hotel. By January 1880, the three-storey hotel (opening as the Family Hotel, with three name changes before it became the Austral in 1898) with accommodation was completed.
The other sections of McKinn’s Italianate building were constructed from east to west, with the section occupied by Malcolm Reid from 1909 being the last in about 1883. Malcolm Reid and Co.’s part was substantially altered for it in 1909, reflecting the firm’s success.
Malcolm Reid was born in 1857 in Adelaide to parents who’d arrived South Australia in the late 1840s. He received secondary education at Port Adelaide Grammar School run by Allen Martin. Reid's first job was as a clerk with D. & J. Fowler followed by working for a builder, giving an insight into the timber business. When silver was found in Broken Hill, Reid set up a timber business there. He also started one in St Vincent Street, Port Adelaide, in 1882. In 1884, the business became Russell, Reid & Dickson, selling "Doors, Sashes, and Frames, and every kind of Building Materials", with a steam sawmill in Leadenhall Street. This company, owned by Reid with James Russell, dissolved in 1887.
With new partner Henry Emes, Reid advertised "the largest and best assorted stock of Tin; Iron, and Enamelled Saucepans in town, at prices that beat the record" in Broken Hill’s Barrier Miner. Leaving the Broken Hill business in the charge of brother Tom, Reid came to Adelaide city in 1891 to start a timber and iron merchant business in Franklin Street, with offices in Port Adelaide and Broken Hill. Reid in 1892 leased premises at 55 Rundle Street to test the market before a move at No. 148, “near Fitch’s Corner”, to sell furniture in larger premise formerly occupied by C. Segar.
During a business downturn in Adelaide in 1902, Reid sold his timber business but kept the furniture part run by his brother John. Reid went to Johannesburg, South Africa, as timber merchant supplying mines. Three years later he sent some family members to London and in 1909 returned to Adelaide with three of his sons Harold, Beg and Douglas, who opened Reid Brothers timber merchants.
Two years later Malcolm Reid floated Malcolm Reid and Co. wholesale furnishers with showrooms, after extensive alterations, at 187-195 Rundle Street east. He also floated Reid Brothers and Duncan and Fraser's business into companies. Reid returned to South Africa in 1919 and sold the timber business before returning, after buying furniture in London, to Adelaide in 1923. He made several trips to London and was made a freeman of the City of London. He also was an Adelaide city council alderman.
His business was reformed in 1911 as a limited company Malcolm Reid & Co. Ltd, with directors Reid, Sidney Reid, and Thomas Crase as directors. Reid died in 1933 but Malcolm Reid & Co. Ltd. continued and opened a store in Bourke Street, Melbourne, in 1936.
The company’s furnitre and company store in King William Street, Adelaide city, was taken over in 1947 by a new home furnishing company, Reid's Ltd, with Malcolm Reid & Co. Ltd. owning all ordinary shares. In 1951, the new Malcolm Reid and Co. (Vic.) Pty. Ltd., bought the Victorian assets from Malcolm Reid & Co. Ltd.
The Malcolm Reid Rundle Street store premises were partly taken over by the South Australian Writers Centre in the 1980s.