This two-storey stone building, located on Ballarat Street in Queenstown, was built as a store for general merchant Robert Boyce in 1879. It has historical and architectural significance, recalling the importance of store keeping in nineteenth century Queenstown.

Scottish born Robert Boyne (1827-1908) came to New Zealand via the Victorian goldfields, arriving in Melbourne in 1858 before following the call of gold to Otago in 1862. With his brother Alexander he went first to Gabriels Gully, then to the Dunstan, and by 1863, had moved to Queenstown. The brothers set up as storekeepers. Their initial store was on Beach Street, but they moved to Ballarat Street in June 1863. Shortly afterwards, Alexander left Queenstown for Invercargill, returning in 1871 to set up his own business.

Robert Boyne traded as a general merchant and draper. The first store was a large tent that served as both residence and shop. The tent was replaced by a wooden store, and in 1879, by the stone store that stands today. Photographs show a plain two-storeyed stone building with a square parapet to Ballarat Street and a hipped corrugated iron roof. In January 1882, the store was damaged by the fire that claimed several buildings on Ballarat Street. A verandah was added in 1886. A newspaper article noted Boyne’s general store as one of several ‘commodious business premises’ in Queenstown – with its ‘freestone front’, the stone having been taken from Bob’s Cove.

Robert Boyne expanded the business, joined by his son Alexander (1865-1924). Alexander took over the business after his father’s death in 1908. Alexander died in 1924, after which the property was sold to Queenstown grocer John McNeill.

In the 1930s, the firm was renamed McNeill and Tripp (Tripp being another Boyne relative). Later taken over by James Rattray and Sons, the building became the Queenstown Supermarket. In the mid-1990s, it was converted to a movie theatre – the Embassy Theatre – and in 2015, is the home of Reading Cinemas in Queenstown.