The foundation stone of St John the Baptist Church was laid in 1841 and it was consecrated on 12 March 1845. It listed by the ACT Heritage Council. Most of the suburb was constructed in 1926 and 1927 to provide housing for public servants in preparation for the opening of the provisional Parliament House in 1927. It was a housing precinct planned on Garden City principles and is now heritage-listed. The Uniting Church on Coranderrk Street was built in 1927 and is also heritage listed. Reid was named in 1928 after Australia's fourth Prime Minister, Sir George Reid. It was previously considered to be part of Ainslie. The streets in Reid are named after aboriginal words. The four-storey Bega flats were completed east of Cooyong street and south of Ainslie in 1957 in order to cope with a critical lack of accommodation for public servants transferred to Canberra. The ACT Heritage Council described them as having been designed in the Post-War International style "similar to post-war housing in Europe, particularly in English new towns. The fine proportions, crisp detailing and low scale of and their siting continuing the street pattern made them more architecturally successful than the three eight-storey blocks of flats along Currong Street". The Heritage Council declined to heritage list the buildings and despite some local opposition they were demolished in 2017/18 and will be replaced by more modern and denser accommodation along with some commercial uses.
Demographics
At the, the population of Reid was 1,636, including 26 Indigenous persons and 972 Australian-born persons. 29.7% of dwellings were separate houses, while 19.1% were semi-detached, row or terrace houses and 50.3% were flats, units or apartments. 39.9% of the population were professionals, compared to the Australian average of 22.2%. Notably 20.2% worked in central government administration, compared to the Australian average of 1.2%, although the ACT-wide average was a similar 18.4%. Reid was favoured by students and young adults with 23.4% of its population in the 20 to 29-year-old age group. 41.5% of the population had no religion, 14.5% were Catholic, 14.4% had no stated religion and 12.1% were Anglican.
Calcareous shale from the Canberra Formation is overlain by Quaternary alluvium. This rock is the limestone of the original title of Canberra "Limestone Plains". Tertiary age pebbly gravels are around Anzac Parade left from when the Molonglo river was at a higher level.
