Walter Reid Cultural Centre

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Walter Reid Community Arts Centre is a heritage-listed former warehouse and now community arts centre at 203 East Street, Rockhampton, Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Hutton & Hockings and built from 1900 to 1902 by Dennis Kelleher. It is also known as Walter Reid & Co. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.HistoryThe former Walter Reid & Co warehouse at the corner of East and Derby Streets was erected between 1900 and 1902 for the wholesalers Walter Reid & Co. The rendered brickwork building was designed by Rockhampton architects Hutton and Hockings and was built by Rockhampton builder Dennis Kelleher. It was the second warehouse to be constructed for the rapidly expanding merchandisers and was built when Rockhampton's activity as a thriving city port fostered such commercial development near the Fitzroy River wharves.Walter Reid, the founder of Rockhampton's premier mercantile house Walter Reid & Co, came to Rockhampton in 1862 to manage a southern owned retail store in East Street which he subsequently bought in 1864. He moved from his shop to new premises situated in Quay Street in 1868. It was in these new premises where Reid began to specialise as a wholesaler, trading in wine, spirits and general merchandise, supplying the hotels and stations in central Western Queensland. Since Rockhampton had been declared an official port in 1858, it had acted as the major transport and trade centre of central Queensland making it a prosperous city in which wholesale merchants like Reid could base their business.