Like others in the area, the firm produced cast iron products for the building industry, and equipment for steamships and locomotives.

In the 1880s, RR Smellie & Co altered the orientation of its business, concentrating on importing machinery, implements, and general hardware supplies.

A three storeyed warehouse (Old Mineral House) designed by Richard Gailey was constructed in 1888 on the corner of Edward and Alice Streets.

[1] The company remained a prominent merchandising firm in Queensland until the 1930s when the economic depression adversely affected its business.

[1] This brick warehouse, located at the Brisbane River end of Edward Street, internally has a large timber structure incorporating a mezzanine level with a central opening.

[1] The base of the building creates a podium consisting of darker coloured brick on a porphyry plinth stone with an upper section having a Greek key pattern in render.

Smellie's Building is part of a surviving group of industrial buildings and warehouses in lower Edward Street and Alice Street, demonstrating the evolution of Frog's Hollow as the principal warehousing and light-industrial sector of Brisbane's central business district, which was sustained from the second half of the 19th century through to the early decades of the 20th century.

Smellie's Building is significant as an accomplished and intact example of an 1890s warehouse with a finely detailed polychrome brick facade.