16-17 The Square, Portaferry, Co Down BT22 1LW

This is a large, formal three-storey terraced house with an Ionic entrance portico and mid-Victorian decorative stucco mouldings to the front, most likely constructed or substantially remodelled between around 1840 and 1859. It is a dominant feature of Portaferry town centre, located centrally within the terrace on the west side of The Square, and is built on a slope running south to north. The ground floor now contains a shop, with an apartment occupying the first and second floors.

The front (east) elevation is almost symmetrical and has a frontage of approximately 17 metres. At the centre of the ground floor is an entrance portico with free-standing, plain tapered Ionic columns on plinths with cushioned bases. The column volutes incorporate an egg-and-dart, or echinus, pattern. The entrance is fitted with a modern glazed door. To either side of the portico is a large window, now with a fixed-light frame; each window has an entablature with scroll supports. Panelled pilasters run between the windows and the portico and rise through all the upper floors. At the far right of the ground floor is a panelled door providing access to the apartment.

The first floor has three window openings corresponding to those below, fitted with mid-Victorian frames each consisting of three vertical panes set in elliptical-headed frames, with a scallop pattern in some of the top corners. A cill course runs across this level. The second floor mirrors the first but is topped by a tall parapet with bracket decorations and mouldings between. Prominent electrical cabling runs beneath the cill course, which detracts from the building's appearance.

The south gable rises above its neighbour and has two windows with modern frames at attic level. The front façade and gable are rendered and painted, with in-and-out vermiculated quoins and a bevelled base to the front elevation. To the rear there is a large three-storey return which is U-shaped at first and second floor level, enclosing a lightwell; its flat roof now serves as a terrace. The main roof is gabled and covered with Bangor blue slates, with attic rooms lit mainly by Velux windows. There are four yellow brick chimneys with coping.

The building's history is complex and not entirely consistent between local accounts and contemporary documentary sources. A building on this site, then in the possession of a Taylor Trevor (or possibly Trevor Taylor), is recorded on Patrick O'Hare's map of Portaferry dated 1799. An article published in the Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society in 1988 states that during the early 19th century the building operated as a hotel owned by the Keown family — most probably the "small but good hotel on the market square" mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1832 to 1834. According to the same article, Mrs Keown sold the property in 1833, and in 1852 a local "sewed muslin" manufacturer named Joseph Wallace bought the lease, built premises to the rear, and renovated the house. Wallace is said to have run a successful embroidery business there until 1866.

However, contemporary valuation records tell a somewhat different story. The first valuation returns of around 1835 record the owner as one William McCleery. The 1863 valuation records describe the building as relatively newly built at that point, graded A-, and state that it belonged to the Northern Banking Company, was unoccupied, and was considered "a very bad property… offered on a lease at £18 [even though it] cost over £2000." There is no evidence from the valuation records that the building was ever occupied by Joseph Wallace. It therefore appears likely that the property was constructed or substantially remodelled sometime between around 1840 and 1860, and that it may originally have been intended for use as a bank — a conversion that was never fully realised.

In the later 19th century the property was sold to a John Lawson, a woollen draper, who converted the ground floor to a drapery shop. The shop remained in his family's possession until 1966, when James and Mary Thompson acquired the lease. Though they also had a background in the drapery trade, they continued trading from their original premises in Ferry Street and left 16–17 The Square vacant. The present owner took over the tenancy in 1978 and has since operated a small grocery store from the ground floor.