Albertville, 11 Bangor Road, Groomsport, Co Down, BT19 6JF

Albertville is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay rendered house with an attic, built around 1840 and located on the north side of Bangor Road, Groomsport. It is rectangular on plan, with a later single-storey porch and a full-height rear return, both added around 1900. The building is a good example of its type, with well-proportioned and plainly detailed architecture appropriate to the period, and much of its historic fabric survives. Now a private residence, the house served first as the personal home of the first minister of Groomsport Presbyterian Church, and later — for upwards of 85 years — as the official Church of Ireland rectory for the parish of Groomsport.

The pitched roof is covered in natural slate, with cement-rendered gable chimneystacks carrying multiple terracotta pots. Cast-iron rainwater goods of ogee profile are fixed on drive-in brackets over corbelled eaves. The external walls are finished in ruled-and-lined cement render with a plinth and rendered quoins.

The principal (south) elevation is symmetrically arranged, with a single window opening to each of the outer bays flanking a later central gabled porch. The porch has a timber-sheeted door to each cheek, each reached by two sandstone steps: the right-hand door is plainly detailed with a glazed transom, while the left-hand door retains its original brass door furniture.

Windows throughout are generally 6/6 timber sliding sashes without horns, set on projecting sandstone sills. The left (west) gable has three windows to the ground floor — those to the left being six-pane fixed windows — a single window to the first floor, and a diminutive 6/6 timber sliding sash to the attic storey. The rear (north) elevation is painted to first-floor level and is almost entirely abutted by the rear return, with the exception of the exposed right side, which has one window to each floor. The rear return itself contains a variety of openings: two diminutive fixed two-pane windows to the north elevation, 3/6 timber sliding sashes with horns at half-landing level, and a sliding sash set into a wall-head dormer to the west. There are also enlarged window openings to the west and east, and a timber-sheeted door with a bronze knocker set within a gabled windbreak porch to the east. The right (east) gable has two windows to each of the ground and first floors, and a diminutive window to the attic.

The house is set in mature gardens, though the rear portion of the site and part of the front garden have been developed with modern housing, which has detracted from the setting. Directly to the rear stands a former stable block with a monopitched artificial slate roof, painted rendered walling, and timber-sheeted openings. The house is reached by a gravel lane and is bounded to the road by a rubble stone boundary wall with soldier coping and sandstone gate piers.

The history of the house is well documented. It was built around 1840 by the Reverend Isaac Mack, the first minister of Groomsport Presbyterian congregation, appointed in 1841, using his own funds — meaning it never served as an official Presbyterian manse. It first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned 'Rose Lodge', shown as a rectangular building with a rear return and an outbuilding to the north. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 records it as the residence of Reverend Isaac Mack, leased from John Waring Maxwell, with the house, offices, and land valued at £12, later rising to £15. Dimensions recorded at the time were 14 by 8 feet over two storeys for the main house, and 6 by 5 feet over one and a half storeys for the return.

Mack subsequently raised funds for the construction of the Presbyterian church, schools, tower, and a new church-owned manse built in the 1860s beside the church on the site of an earlier dwelling. That manse was divided into two: Mack occupied the 'side-manse', while the 'front manse' was let to a tenant. It was later demolished in the 1960s, leaving only a single gable wall standing.

Annual revision records show the present house renamed 'Albertvilla' from 1866, with its valuation raised in the same year to £20 to reflect improvements, which included a significant extension to the rear. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901 captions the house 'Albertville' and shows both the rear extension and the new front porch. Reverend Mack continued to occupy both Albertville and the side-manse until his death in 1877, when he left Albertville to his brother by will. His successor, Reverend Latimer, built a new manse in Ballymacormick townland on land previously acquired by Mack, while continuing to use the side-manse.

Around 1880, Albertville was taken over by the Church of Ireland. Although Groomsport had its own church from 1842, it had initially operated as a chapel of ease to Bangor, with incumbents appointed directly to Groomsport and their stipend provided by the Maxwell family as patrons and later trustees. Following disestablishment in 1871, Groomsport's status became broadly equivalent to that of a parish, though the title 'parish' does not appear in any official documentation so far identified until the mid-1890s. The benefice initially provided no clergy residence. 'The Lodge', built around 1870 opposite Groomsport church, may have been built with the Reverend McCausland, incumbent from 1853 to 1880, in mind. His successor, Frederick John Hearne, is recorded as living at Albertville from 1881, at which point the house was renamed 'The Rectory' and became the official clergy residence for Groomsport's Church of Ireland for upwards of 85 years. The Church of Ireland offered the house for sale in the late 1960s, and it has since functioned as a private residence.