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M230 Shop, flat and offices, Comrie

Address: 1, Dunira Street, Comrie PH6 2LJ
Date: 1903–5
Client: Peter Macpherson
Authorship:

(Mackintosh)

1903: 29 May 1903: Fire destroys the property which included the shop, showrooms and workrooms of Brough & Macpherson, drapers and ironmongers, and the office of solicitor John P. Mitchell. Cost of damage and lost building contents estimated at around �3000. 1
Peter Macpherson bought the site of the building following the fire from the widow of its late owner, Mrs Jane H. Brough, Wellpark, Comrie. 2
27 July: Probably Mackintosh's first letter to John P. Mitchell, solicitor for the client Peter Macpherson. Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh's fees of '5% on outlays' are outlined. 3
28 July: Mitchell replies to Mackintosh. He hopes that Mackintosh will take on the work at Comrie. 4
1 August: Mitchell sends Mackintosh an approximate plan of the building and a postcard showing the Dunira Street facade before the fire. He makes suggestions regarding the internal layout of the new building. 5
19 September: Newspaper announcement of the rebuilding with plans in preparation. 'The front wall is to be rebuilt from the ground, and considerable alterations will be made on the part facing Melville Square. The ground floor will be shops, and the erection will be three storeys high.' 6
8 November: Following a vist to Comrie by measurers Barr & Fyfe, Mitchell sends Mackintosh schedules for the building. 7
17 November: Arrangements are made to enable contractors to view the building plans in Comrie prior to submitting tenders. 8

1904: 27 and 30 January: Contractor tenders accepted. 9

1905: 4 July: Final payment sent to measurers Barr & Fyfe. 10
15 November: Latest payment to contractor. 11

1906: 20 January: Cheque for final payment sent to Mackintosh. Mitchell requests that the work be fully discharged. 12

1975–6: Shop, flat and offices all in separate, private ownership. Exterior recently white-washed. Building well maintained. 13

1985: The Landmark Trust purchases the flat from Mr and Mrs Ray Smith. Following careful and sympathetic restoration led by Stewart Tod, architect, it is rented out as holiday accomodation. 14

1986: Nora Hamilton, granddaughter of Peter Macpherson, agrees to sell the shop to the Landmark Trust. She continues to run the business. 15

1988: March: Nora Hamilton retires. Shop taken on by a new tenant as a going concern. 16

2006: Proposal to convert former offices at W. of the building to a two-bedroom cottage undertaken by Woodside Parker, chartered architects, Bridge of Earn. Mantelpieces on first floor are retained. 17

2011: Cottage, in a different internal configuration to the 2006 proposal, made available to rent as holiday accomodation. 18

Notes:

1: Strathearn Herald, 30 May 1903. Mitchell was the nephew of Mr & Mrs Brough; he paid his rent directly to his aunt. Perth & Kinross Council Archive: Mitchell & Thomson solicitors, letter book 10, MS114/1/10, 15 May 1903.

2: Strathearn Herald, 19 September 1903; Stirling Council Archives: Perthshire valuation rolls, Central District, Comrie Parish, Dunira Street, 1902–3, PC2/1/48, p. 420.

3: Perth & Kinross Council Archive: Mitchell & Thomson solicitors, letter book 10, MS114/1/10, 28 July 1903, p. 580; vol. 12, MS114/1/12, 16 November 1905.

4: Perth & Kinross Council Archive: Mitchell & Thomson, Solicitors, letter book 10, MS114/1/10, 28 July 1903.

5: Perth & Kinross Council Archive: Mitchell & Thomson solicitors, letter book 10, MS114/1/10, 1 August 1903.

6: Strathearn Herald, 19 September 1903.

7: Perth & Kinross Council Archive: Mitchell & Thomson solicitors, letter book 10, MS114/1/10, 8 November 1903.

8: Perth & Kinross Council Archive: Mitchell & Thomson solicitors, letter book 10, MS114/1/10, 17 November 1903.

9: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh job book, GLAHA 53062, pp. 39–40.

10: Perth & Kinross Council Archive: Mitchell & Thomson solicitors, letter book 12, MS114/1/12, 4 July 1905, p. 410.

11: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh job book, GLAHA 53062, p. 39.

12: Perth & Kinross Council Archive: Mitchell & Thomson solicitors, letter book 12, MS114/1/12, 20 January 1906.

13: Alison Harris, 'A report on the present and future condition of the remaining buildings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh', Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow: unpublished Dip.Arch. thesis, 1976, pp. 40–40b.

14: Landmark Trust Mackintosh Building, www.landmarktrust.org.uk [accessed 1 June 2011]; Landmark Trust information booklet in the flat, p. 1.

15: Landmark Trust information booklet in the flat, p. 2.

16: Strathearn Herald, 5 March 1988, p. 8.

17: The Hunterian: University of Glasgow: letter from Philip C. Parker, architect, to Pamela Robertson, curator, requesting archival asistance for the conversion of the former offices, 3 March 2006.

18: Rennie Mackintosh Retreat, Comrie, www.unique-cottages.co.uk [accessed 1 June 2011].

'Mackintosh Architecture' led by The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; with additional support from The Monument Trust, The Pilgrim Trust, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; and collaborative input from Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.