site of the HISTORIC reid home
330 East Main Street
Architect: Unknown
Builder: A.D. Holler
Built: 1880-81
Having grown up in the edge of Chester County, James F. Reid was well acquainted with the Mills family who had moved to Rock Hill. When his mother died shortly after the Civil War, James took a room in the Mills Home in downtown Rock Hill and began working in the Roddey Mercantile Company. It did not take long for him to become a partner in the business. Within a few years, nearly the entire Reid family had moved to the city and begun businesses.
James Reid married the daughter of his landlord and they later constructed their new home on part of his father-in-law’s East Main Street property.
The Herald reported on July 15, 1880 – “That Mr. James Reid has begun erection of a dwelling on the eastern side of the city.”
Before the town of Rock Hill had a public water system built, James Reid and a neighbor, built a windmill and bored a well in James Reid’s back yard. They then piped water into their homes. Ironically, he later served as a director of the Electric Company organized in 1890 to serve the city.
This dwelling later became the medical office of highly respected Dr. Roderick Macdonald, an Ophthalmologist and beloved Southern gentleman.