79 High Street, Montrose

79 High Street in Montrose is a classical commercial building dating from 1815. It is three stories tall with an attic and has a shallow L-shaped plan. The front is finished in ashlar stone, featuring a base course and a rusticated ground floor. There are cill and band courses at the first and second floors, an eaves cornice, and a blocking course with a raised and fluted tablet at the center. The sides and rear are constructed from squared, snecked, and stugged sandstone.

The west elevation, which is the principal facade, showcases smooth rustication at the ground level. It has two central windows with deep voussoirs, flanked by consoled, architraved doorpieces that have dentil cornices. The right doorpiece frames the entrance to the pend leading to No 81. The first floor features architraved windows with corniced heads, while the second floor has architraved windows as well. Above, there are a pair of three-light timber mullioned dormers that are pilastered and corniced.

The north elevation is adjacent to 77 High Street on the west side and has a wing extending to the east. The east elevation includes an advanced single-storey, flat-roofed section on the right, with a harled gable end of the three-storey block behind it. There is a window at the center of the second floor, and a later semi-platform-roofed addition abuts to the right. The left side features a single bay of the High Street block, with a pend at ground level that has a round-arched entrance. The south wall contains a door and windows, with a window to the right at ground level and a window at the center of the first and second floors. Above, there is a two-light timber mullioned dormer.

The south elevation has a wing extending eastward, with a single bay to the left that is set back. It features a Roman Doric doorpiece to the left, a window at the first floor with stained glass, and round-arched astragals, along with a plain window above. To the right, there are two bays, with an extra stone mullioned and transomed bipartite window at the center on the ground floor, and a single-storey section to the right that includes an architraved doorway. There are also two doorways at the extreme right with chamfered margins.

The building has a variety of timber sash and case windows with plate glass, four-pane, and small-pane glazing. The roof is covered with grey slate and features stone skews. There are corniced ashlar gablehead stacks to the north and south, complete with polygonal cans, and a harled gablehead stack to the east. The low single-storey section to the east has stone coping.

The interior was not seen in 1997.