Parochial House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A four-bay two-storey house built of sandstone to the front and east side, but rendered to the west side and rear, with hipped slated roofs. It stands within the built-up area of the town, facing a public road but set well back from it within its own grounds.

Walling is of squared rock-faced sandstone in irregular courses, with some ashlar sandstone dressings, and a projecting plinth and eaves course. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with a pair of decoratively treated finials and a pair of sandstone chimneys. Rainwater goods are of cast iron.

The south elevation is of two storeys with a symmetrical arrangement of roof but an asymmetrical arrangement of openings in the wall. There are two main entrances, one for the parish priest's part of the house, which is located in a porch on the east side, and one for the curates' part of the house, both facing south. Windows in the main wall are set in segmental arched openings, and are modern replacement two-paned timber fixed and opening lights for the original two-paned sashes. The second bay from the right on the first floor contains a pair of narrower windows than elsewhere flanking each side of a Gothic stone canopied niche containing a white marble statue of the Virgin Mary which is supported on a large projecting canted corbel decorated with carved stone shamrocks and inscribed 'St Mary's 1904'. At each end of the ground floor is a canted single-storey bay containing rectangular timber windows of similar detail to the previous, set in ashlar sandstone surrounds with a moulded cornice. In the second bay of the elevation from the left is a doorway, the main entrance to the curates' section. It contains a rectangular timber panelled door with a segmental arched glazed fanlight, set in a moulded segmental arched surround with flanking colonnettes which have foliated capitals, surmounted by an ogee segmental-arched drip moulding with foliated stops and large foliated finial. It is approached by a flight of three projecting sandstone steps.

The west elevation is of smooth render, with the sandstone of the entrance front façade returning around the corner to appear as quoins. Windows are both segmental headed and square headed, of modern two-pane type as elsewhere, set in slightly raised narrow surrounds. Roofs and rainwater goods are as previous. There is one chimney of yellow brickwork, at the rear of the main front block, which appears to be original. Projecting forward is a later modern single storey parochial office in similar materials and detailing to this elevation.

The north rear elevation consists of the rear wall of the main front block deeply recessed between two long projecting rear returns. All are of rendered finish and contain modern rectangular windows of different size except for a pair of Gothic headed windows in the main block, and a small ocular window at attic level in the gable of the main block. This gable of the main block is surmounted by a sandstone chimney, while the gables of the two returns each has a projecting chimney stack of smooth rendered finish. Roofs of main block and rear returns are mainly of hipped form slated as previous.

The east elevation of the main front block is three windows wide to the first floor with a projecting single storey porch in the centre of the ground floor. The porch has a flat parapet roof. The north and east faces each contain one window similar to those of the south elevation. The south wall contains a doorway, the main entrance to the parish priest's part of the building. It is similar to the entrance to the curates' part except that the drip moulding is of segmental form and without a finial. It is approached by one stone projecting stone step.

SETTING:

The building is approached from the public road by a tarmac driveway which loops around in front of the building and also extends along each side expanding on the west side to form a car parking area. The grounds are laid out with lawns to front and rear, with a paved courtyard and a modern single storey garage immediately behind the house. The front boundary is formed by a thick hedge and shrubs, and contains the main gateway comprising a pair of square rock-faced coursed sandstone piers flanked by curving screen walls but now minus gates, and a small ironwork pedestrian gate east of it, leading to a pedestrian path up to the front of the house. Behind the front boundary, near the south-west corner of the garden is a devotional statue mounted on a modern brick base.

Historical information

Built in 1904 to the designs of E. & J. Byrne, architects of Belfast.

References - Primary Sources
1. Datestone of 1904 on the building.
2. Irish Builder, 1903, p 1704.

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Dungannon and Cookstown (Belfast, 1971), p 34.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A four-bay two-storey house built of sandstone to the front and east side, but rendered to the west side and rear, with hipped slated roofs. This is an attractive early 20th century building in an indeterminate style, essentially a very free treatment of Gothic Revival, which is nicely proportioned and displays a modest amount of ornamental details appropriate to the style. It was designed by a firm of Belfast architects, E. & J. Byrne, otherwise known for their church and institutional work for the Catholic church elsewhere, as well as for the Crown Bar in Belfast. This commission is more domestic in character than their other recorded buildings and forms an interesting extension to their work. Despite some later modern additions which detract somewhat from the original character and appearance externally, it stands as a building of considerable local interest.