38, Sion Hill

No. 38, Sion Hill is a house dating from 1792, with alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The property is situated on a sloping site that descends to the south. It is built of painted ashlar and rubblestone to the front range, with limestone rubble to the rear, and has four slate roofs with moulded stacks.

The building is two storeys high and has a four-window front, with a width of two rooms and a depth of three rooms, plus a single-storey, northwest wing added in 1971. A coped parapet runs around the building, with the exception of the northeast side of the rubblestone range. The south entrance front has a returned cornice and platband; the cornice is interrupted by a moulding that curves inwards to accommodate a rainwater downpipe. A doorcase to the left of centre features a raised and fielded six-panel door with a three-pane overlight, flanked by Tuscan pilasters supporting an open pediment that cuts through the platband. Late 19th-century plate glass sash windows are present, with blind windows to the left of the first floor, while the ground floor retains original six-pane sashes.

The west garden front continues the cornice and platband, incorporating a wide, full-height canted bay with a pointed hipped roof; the window openings appear to have been narrowed. A six-pane sash window is visible on the first floor and to the left, a recessed ashlar-faced range has a six-pane sash window. There are 20th-century windows to the ground floor left. The right-hand return facing Sion Hill has a six-pane sash window to the staircase.

The interior features a cantilevered stone staircase with an open string, stick balusters, and a swept mahogany rail. Enclosed attic stairs in the older section have a canvas covering on the timber-framed wall. A small first-floor room has a simple cornice, a dado rail, and a stone surround to a cast iron Bath grate. Six-panel doors have mouldings to the panels on the sides facing the rooms; the door to the ground-floor right room is hinged in the centre. A room to the rear has a fireplace, likely repositioned, with a white marble surround and a composition frieze.

According to deeds, the construction date is 1792. There may have been an earlier cottage on the northeast corner of the site that was subsequently enlarged. In 1852, the property was known as Laurel Cottage.