RD MacLean history

     RD MacLean, also known as Roderick Duncan MacLean, started his humble beginnings as a door to door salesman selling pots and pans, but deep down, he had a passion for Catholic religion. Brought up in a religious family, he had a good connection with the church. After graduating from Saint Francis Xavier University, he tried a couple years in the seminary like three of his brothers who, eventually, became priests. He also had three sisters who were nuns. All this religious background made it easy for him to start selling church supplies and religious articles. 
     In the early 30’s, he decided to start his business and open the R.D. MacLean Company Ltd. store in central Moncton. The location was perfect for shipping its product to the Atlantic Provinces because the city of Moncton had an impeccable railroad system at that time. He first opened the store downtown Moncton on Westmorland, located in the basement of the newspaper firm called "L’Évangeline". He often did business with that newspaper firm. This allowed his new store to get a lot of publicity. If you are wondering what the building looks like in the present time, it is now a restaurant named Gustav. 
     Moving on to the late 30’s, he relocated his business next to the newly built Cathedral, which is where the store still resides. The building on 200 St George used to be the number one fire station in the early 1900's. The back yard was the coral for the horses and the upstairs is where families lived. The fire station quickly moved out because during the winter, the water in the pipes used to freeze from the really bad insulated walls. These conditions were too unpredictable and made it very inconvenient in desperate mesures when needing to put out a fire, so they built a better building across the street where Moncton Youth Quest is now. Although, this made was very convenient for RD MacLean. 
     All moved in the new location on St George Street, Roderick renovated and added to the building which doubled the space that it used to be. He also added a manual elevator that is still functional and being used today. He worked until he was 80 years old.
     In 1983, he sold his company to his second son, Donald Maclean. Donald implemented many new technologies like the 1-800 number and fax machine to improve ease of communication with the customers. He kept ownership for 20 years after his daughter (Roderick's grand-daughter) became the owner and is still the owner to this day.