Sullivan Upper School Preparatory Department, Dromkeen House, Alexandra Park, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9ET

Dromkeen House is a detached red brick three-bay two-storey-with-attic house built around 1895, now in use as the preparatory department of Sullivan Upper School. It stands on the corner of Alexandra Park and My Lady's Mile in central Holywood, Co Down. The building is square on plan, with an L-shaped toilet block to the south and a full-width single-storey extension to the rear dating from 1953, further abutted by a large single-storey-over-basement extension built around 1990.

The house is constructed in English garden wall-bonded red brick laid on a chamfered plinth with a dog-tooth band between floors and egg-and-dart frieze to the gables. The pitched natural slate roof is finished with decorative terracotta ridge tiles. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods with square hoppers sit on a projecting egg-and-dart frieze.

Windows throughout are segmental-headed 1/1 timber sliding sashes with horns, featuring voussoired heads and projecting masonry sills. The principal southeast elevation is dominated by a central breakfront rising to a pediment above the eaves line, flanked by windows on either side. Oversized leaded and stained glass windows at first-floor level are framed by red-brick pilasters with two decoratively carved tiled panels to the entablature and outer pilaster heads. The pediment features an egg-and-dart and dog-tooth frieze with a central diamond-shaped carved panel. The entrance has a replacement timber-sheeted door flanked by two slender windows and is accessed by a stone step.

The southwest elevation has paired windows to the attic; the first floor contains a window to the left, modern double-leaf timber doors with sidelight and a window to the right with an oculus above; the ground floor features a modern timber door with transom light to the left and a window to the right. A raised flue is positioned left of centre, and an attached steel fire escape runs up this elevation. The northwest elevation displays two dormer windows, paired windows to the first floor on both left and right sides, and a blind window at centre. The northeast elevation has a small breakfront to centre, with windows to ground and first floors on either side, and a small oculus to the attic at left. The breakfront itself contains paired attic windows with windows to the first and ground floors.

The house is set on a large mature site in a mainly residential area surrounded by detached Victorian houses, with the main Sullivan Upper School building to the northwest. A modern single-storey block of classrooms stands to the south. The property is accessed by a tarmacadam driveway with asphalt pitch to the front, with a large sloping garden to the northeast enclosed by mature trees. The boundary to the road is defined by a mature hedgerow with modern steel entrance gates.

The area south of Holywood began development towards the end of the nineteenth century, and by the 1900-02 Ordnance Survey map was filling with large houses in spacious grounds. Dromkeen House is shown uncaptioned on that map and enters valuation records in 1895 as one of several newly-built houses along Alexandra Park, described as "a new road, off my Lady's Mile". The valuer noted the house cost £843 with a ground rent of £9, estimating rental income of £60 plus railway ticket—referring to the custom of free railway tickets being offered by the railway company to owners or occupiers of new houses for ten years from construction.

The first recorded occupier was Agnes Beddow, though it is unclear whether she was tenant or owner, as the immediate lessor was noted as John Harrison, a large landowner in the area. By the 1901 census, the house was occupied by James Munce, son-in-law of Agnes Beddow, who described himself as a Civil Engineer and Assistant City Surveyor for Belfast. It is possible that James Munce was the designer of the house. He lived there with his wife, mother-in-law, and five children, the eldest son also working as a civil engineer. No servants are listed. Munce claimed to have designed and supervised the building of St George's Market in Belfast, though this building is generally attributed to Josiah Corbett Bretland, to whom Munce was an assistant. Munce also claimed responsibility for other Belfast buildings including two fire stations and a police station. His son, James Stilwell Munce, worked as an engineer and architect, latterly as a partner in the firm Munce & Kennedy, responsible for many commercial, domestic and public projects in and around Belfast.

At the 1911 census, James Munce was living with his wife and three unmarried daughters; his son James Stilwell had moved to London temporarily to join the Works Department of London County Council. James Munce died in 1917, and his widow Margaret occupied the house until 1920 when it was taken over by Herbert C Spurrier, followed in 1921 by Violet Stevens Gardiner. By 1928, the occupier was Samuel Wilson (1861–1937), later knighted, a land agent and Senior Commissioner of the Land Purchase Commission, established following late nineteenth-century land purchase legislation to allocate and distribute land purchase monies to vendors, mortgagees and other interested parties. Samuel Wilson died in 1937.

In 1953, Dromkeen House was acquired for the preparatory department of Sullivan Upper School, with additions and alterations made at that time. The school currently caters for pupils from Primary 1 to Primary 4 and was extended to the rear in 1990. The change of use has resulted in a loss of historic fabric and detailing and the alteration of the original floorplan, with extensive alterations compromising its architectural and historic interest, although it remains significant in the locale.