Cowan, Brownlie & Co.

Cowan, Brownlie & Co., Clothiers, 94, St. Vincent Street.—

    Nearly one hundred years ago the house named above was established in Trongate, Glasgow, as MacEwan & Co., was subsequently removed to Argyle Street, then to Glassford Street, then to 53, Buchanan Street, and eventually to its present premises, where the business has been located for the past thirty-five years. The firm assumed its present title twelve months ago, and the proprietary now includes Messrs. J. Cowan, J. Brownlie, and J. M. Campbell, who conduct the operations of the concern in partnership. The house is at once one of the oldest and most notable in the clothing trade of Glasgow, and its present establishment is remarkable for the fact that it was the first business house opened in St. Vincent Street. An evidence of the amazing growth and development of Glasgow in this locality exists in the striking circumstance that sixty years ago a flourishing orchard occupied a portion of the site of Messrs. Cowan, Brownlie & Co’s, present busy and extensive depot. The whole neighbourhood of St. Vincent Street was practically rural three-quarters of a century ago, and its very existence dates from the time when Glasgow merchants, compelled by the American War of Independence to relinquish their immense system of operations in tobacco, turned their enterprising attention to the cultivation of the West India trade.

    The firm’s premises comprise to-day a large and exceedingly well appointed shop and showroom, with a magnificent stock of first-class tailoring and clothing fabrics of every description. All the newest, most fashionable, and best materials in the market are here displayed ; and the highest of quality is a sine qua non of every piece of goods that enters the establishment. The house is simply and essentially a clothing emporium of the very first class, having been from the first famous throughout the west country for the exclusively superior character of all its productions, and no amount of extended comment or detail in these pages would serve to materially accentuate this established and accepted fact. The business in all its branches is conducted with marked ability and judgment, upon a thoroughly sound basis of honourable mercantile principle. A large and manifestly efficient staff is employed, and a great volume of trade is controlled, the operations of which take extensive effect among a widespread and influential connection in all parts of Glasgow and the Scottish provinces.

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