John Baird
Following his father's death, he inherited a row of
thatched cottages in Lugar Street. Life as a working joiner did not
suit him and he took this opportunity to make changes. He
demolished the houses and replaced them with new handsome business
premises and ventured into the drapery trade. On retiring, the
drapery business passed to John Goldie and later became James
Livingstone's grocery business.
The Baird
Institute
In his will, John Baird bequeathed money for the erection of
a public building in Cumnock that would provide leisure facilities
for the use of the inhabitants of the town. This was to include a
museum, a billiard room and reading rooms with newspapers,
periodicals, magazines, reviews, books and
curiosities.
The building was designed by Mr Robert Ingram of Kilmarnock,
the son of John Baird's early instructor in engineering drawing. It
was opened in March 1891 and is in the Scottish Baronial style,
constructed from local Mauchline and Auchinleck pink sandstone. All
rooms were illuminated with gas lighting, each with Irish white
marble fireplaces except for the one in the Billiards Room which
was made from Italian black and gold marble.
