The growth of industrial buildings, in proximity to the railway development of the time created new jobs in Dalry. These included employment with the railways themselves, as well as at the Fountain Brewery, the Caledonian Distillery, the North British Rubber Company's Castle Mill (1856) and the Grove Street Biscuit Factory (1868). This led to a surge in requirements for new residential development, leading to a significant boom in tenement housing building in the late 19th century mainly by the Scottish businessman and baronet Sir James Steel. Steel purchased and developed three main parcels of land; the Caledonian, the Downfield and the Murieston developments, all built by 1887.