1 Wallace Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey redbrick and rendered house, built c.1910. L-shaped on plan facing south with two-storey rear return located on the north side of Wallace Avenue, formerly the school-master's house to Brownlee School to the east. Now empty and disused.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and three redbrick chimneystacks rising from each gable. Original cast-iron guttering to timber fascia with sheeted timber eaves and replacement plastic downpipes. Pebbledash rendered walling to first floor with moulded redbrick drip course above redbrick walling laid in English garden wall bond to ground floor with redbrick projecting plinth course. Square-headed window openings with stone sills and original 6/1 timber sash windows.

Three-bay two-storey front elevation has a pair of wall-head dormers with terracotta finials and moulded timber bargeboards. To the east bay at ground floor level is a three-sided bay window with moulded brick cornice. Central round-headed door opening with moulded brick hood moulding and decorative terracotta label stops, containing a tripartite timber-frame doorcase with replacement timber panelled door and leaded Art Nouveau fanlight.

West side elevation has a single window opening to the gable and a three-sided bay window to the ground level of the rear return containing paired window openings and a hipped natural slate roof.

Rear elevation abutted by two-storey gable-ended return with pebbledash rendered walling to both floors and various square-headed window openings with single-pane timber sash windows.

East gable has irregularly placed window openings.

Setting:
Set within its own plot on the north side of Wallace Avenue enclosed by redbrick front wall. Modern flat-roofed garage structure to the east.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick / pebbledash render
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

The current house and the street on which it lies, Wallace Avenue, first appear on the fourth edition OS map of 1921. Wallace Avenue itself was laid out between 1900 and 1911 on the landscaped gardens belonging to Castle House, the former residence of Sir Richard Wallace. The current house is the teacher’s residence belonging to Brownlee Memorial Primary School.
The Brownlees were a prosperous family who owned a grain mill at the foot of Bridge Street. They had been connected with Railway Street Presbyterian Church since its foundation in 1860 and the last of the family, Miss Isabella Brownlee, had bought a site in Wallace Avenue for a teacher’s residence before her death in 1909, the boys’ and girls’ schools being at that time situated to the rear of the church. (Ulster Star)
Miss Brownlee left a large bequest to the church and with this money and the assistance of the National Board a site for a new school was purchased, the school built and equipped, and later a residence provided, at a cost of about £7,000. The architect was James Hunter and the residence was built by Mr. R. Pinkerton, of Bachelor's Walk. (Ulster Star)
James Hunter was for some time part-time assistant surveyor for the Lisburn district and was the architect of a number of homes, schools and hospitals principally in the Lisburn and Dungannon areas. (www.dia.ie)
The school and teacher’s residence were opened in August 1913. According to John Kelly, the Trustees had originally wished to provide a more commodious residence for the teacher but the Education Commissioners objected. The first principal, Dr Lamont, had no children and the accommodation was sufficient for him. However, when Mr Boyd and his family arrived in 1919 the house had to be enlarged, “at a cost exceeding that of the original building – such was the increase in construction costs in the intervening period”. (Kelly, p.21)
In 1931 the house and school were transferred from the direct control of Railway Street church to the Education Authority. The school building remains in use as Brownlee Primary School. (Ulster Star)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939

Secondary Sources
1. Kelly, J A “Footprints on the Sands of Time, A History of Railway Street Presbyterian Church, Lisburn, 1860 to 2008” 2008

2. Ulster Star Borough Supplement, 27th June 1964
3. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached three-bay two-storey redbrick and rendered house, built c.1910, located on the north side of Wallace Avenue. Originally built as the teacher’s residence for Brownlee Memorial Primary School, to the designs of James Hunter, part-time assistant surveyor for the Lisburn district. A standard early twentieth-century suburban type dwelling, although interesting due its connection to Brownlee Memorial PS, it is not considered of special interest and suitable for listing.