Walter Guthrie (1839 – 1902) was born in Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland. Emigrating in 1863, he founded the business “Guthrie and Larnach’s New Zealand Timber and Woodware Factories Company Limited” with partner William James Mudie Larnach, in Dunedin. In 1881 he sold the Dee Street corner retail branch to William Paisley, a local general merchant. By April of that year, Paisley had contracted F.W. Burwell to demolish the wooden structure and re-build a new concrete and brick property on the same section. By 1883 the Dunedin partnership had dissolved, and Walter relocated to Invercargill, purchasing the business from Paisley. In 1901 the building was bought by Briscoe and Company. The structure still remains on the same site today.

Sources: Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago and Southland Provincial Districts]; Papers Past.