[3][4][5] James worked as a house joiner and studied industrial arts at the Lowell School of Practical Design in Boston before attending McGill University in Montreal and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[6] Although the Coronado Beach Company was not financially successful, the project helped build the West Coast reputation of the Reid Brothers.

[6] Their younger brother, Watson Elkinah Reid moved to California and joined the firm around 1888.

[2] Watson attended Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada and worked as a house joiner.

[6] In 1892, the Reid Brothers were hired to design the Portland, Oregon newspaper's Oregonian Building.

[6] In 1894, Mrs. M. L. Selfridge hired the firm to design six houses on the corner of California and Pierce in San Francisco.

[6] The top of the Call Building was a four-story dome; there, the Reid Brothers established their new office on the eighteenth floor.

[2][13] In 1908, they also designed a Stadium at the Polo Fields for Golden Gate Park, but the project ended early in the construction phase.

[6] They also designed the First Congregational Church, the W. & J. Sloane Building, and two Hale Brothers Co. department stores.

[2][14][6] They also designed the Golden State Theatre in Monterey, the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, the New Sequoia Theater Building in Redwood City, and Sequoia Theatre in Mill Valley, California[15][16][17][18] In 1929, they designed a 20-unit cooperative apartment building in Russian Hill.