James McMichael & Son
Property agents
James McMichael & Son was run by accountants, house factors, valuators and insurance agents James McMichael Senior (1817–1904) and James McMichael Junior (1853–1934). By 1880, James Junior had joined his father and both were working from 36 Argyle Arcade, though advertising individually in the Glasgow Post Office Directory; James McMichael & Son first appears in the directory in 1889. The firm was still in business in 1911. 1
They let and sold property throughout Glasgow; sales were carried out both by public 'roup' or auction, and privately. Their clientele purchased a wide range of buildings including a 'superior' house with billiard room in Kelvinside in in 1880; licensed premises with tenement flats above in Duke Street, in the East End in 1882; an ‘old established licensed restaurant’ in 1883; a ‘modern villa ... good anchorage for yachts’ on Bute in 1884; city-centre craft workshops in 1889; and offices ‘suitable for architects or measurers’ at 144 Bath Street in 1892. 2 The firm was responsible for overseeing the sanitary and other improvements to privately owned tenements carried out by John Honeyman & Keppie / Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh, including Carrick Street and Balmano Street in Glasgow city centre, and Dumbarton Road, Partick, and acted as letting agents for the Glasgow Herald building.
James McMichael Senior became a member of the Glasgow Landlords' Association executive committee in 1886 and was called as an expert witness in property valuation disputes. He also acted as administrator of many deceaseds' or sequestrated estates. 3
He was described as a 'staunch Protestant': he attended the Free Church General Assembly in 1870 and was a member of the the Scottish Protestant Alliance. 4 He was also deeply involved with the Sabbath Protection Association and campaigned against Sunday museum-openings, tram services, concerts, newspapers and miners' demonstrations. 5
James McMichael Junior was on the building committee of Queen's Cross Church, and along with Peter McKissock suggested John Keppie as a suitable architect. 6 Another son, Malcolm Adam McMichael (1855–1881), became an architect. 7
Notes:
1: Birth and death records, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk [accessed 28 October 2012]; Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1880–1, p. 358; 1889–90, p. 419; 1911–2, p. 450.
2: Glasgow Herald, 1 March 1882, p. 3; 2 November 1883, p. 11; 24 January 1884, p. 2; 6 February 1889, p. 5; 1 June 1892, p. 4.
3: Glasgow Herald, 7 June 1871, p. 4; 2 December 1886, p. 10; 17 July 1888, p. 2; Edinburgh Gazette, 8 June 1858, p. 1162; 17 April 1860, p. 538; 7 March 1865, p. 253; 22 November 1878, p. 928.
4: Glasgow Herald, 31 March 1870, p. 3; 20 January 1888, p. 4.
5: Glasgow Herald, 21 February 1893, p. 9; 18 September 1894, p. 5; 15 February 1895, p. 4; 29 October 1895, p. 8; 7 December 1897, p. 3; 9 May 1899, p. 6.
6: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Minutes of Deacons' Court of Free St Matthew's Church, CH3/971/17, 7 December 1896.
7: 'Malcolm Adam McMichael',Dictionary of Scottish Architects, 1840–1980, www.scottisharchitects.org.uk [accessed 28 October 2012].
