13 The Square, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5DX

A substantial two-storey end-of-terrace house built around 1800, situated at the south-west corner of The Square in a small cul de sac. The building is constructed mainly of greywacke field stone with rendered and painted façade. The corners feature moulded and bevelled in-and-out quoins.

The principal elevation faces west onto The Square. The central doorway has a distinctive semi-circular arched Gibbsian surround with moulded archivolt and keystone, with a plain fanlight above and a modern half-glazed timber door. To the left is an enlarged window opening with a three-pane PVC frame incorporating two shallow high-level openers and one large fixed light. To the right of the door is a further window with matching PVC frame and one high-level opener. The first floor has three equally spaced windows with single high-level openers; these are slightly shorter than those on the ground floor. All window openings now have PVC frames.

The right gable features a single-storey lean-to structure with two external doors, currently used as a garden shed. The upper gable portion, finished in roughcast, is blank except for a small square window at second-floor level positioned right of centre.

To the rear, a centrally positioned two-storey gabled return extends from the main house, finished in roughcast and considerably lower than the main structure. Its roof apex meets the main rear wall just below gutter level. The return has windows matching those of the main elevation: one to ground floor and one to first floor on the side adjacent to the main wall. The east face of the return has one enlarged window opening to ground floor and two evenly spaced windows to first floor, each with high-level openers. A large flat-roofed single-storey extension has been added across the full width of the return and former side yard, obscuring the ground floor of the return's rear gable. This extension features a left-of-centre fixed PVC window above and, on its east face, a two-pane door to the left and a wide three-pane window with two high-level openers to the right.

The main and return roofs are covered in Bangor Blue slates. The main roof includes three Velux windows to the rear and two brick chimney stacks; the return features a tall chimney stack in concrete brick. The interior joists are pegged, and the roof space is insulated with chaff laid between the joists.

A low rendered garden wall bounds the front of the property. To the south-west corner of the rear yard stands a two-storey L-shaped block, formerly outhouses recently converted by the present owner into a drum studio and garages.

The site was occupied from at least 1722 onwards, as shown on contemporary maps of Comber. Originally built as a farmhouse around 1800, the property is recorded in the 1834 valuation returns with dimensions matching the present structure. However, it was not occupied by a farmer but by Alexander Montgomery, an attorney who also held the Manor Court in a large inn to the east (now the Northern Bank). Montgomery remained in possession until 1856, when the property was acquired by John Miller, co-owner of the nearby distillery (who lived in the large house to the north, now called Aureen). Miller used the property to house one of the distillery's managers. In the early twentieth century, it housed a haberdashery shop—probably when the ground-floor front window was enlarged. Subsequently, it was home to Hugh Murphy, who used the outbuildings to store dairy produce and kept a lorry at the rear for distributing dairy goods throughout the Comber area.