58-60 Mill Street, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5EQ

A matching pair of picturesque Victorian houses built in 1879 and set within the terrace on the south side of Mill Street, to the west of Comber town centre. The houses stand immediately to the west of the entrance gates to Comber Non-subscribing Presbyterian church and were erected by the church congregation to serve as residences for church staff. The larger house to the east (No.58) was the residence of the church caretaker, while the smaller house to the west (No.60) originally had stables to the rear and may have accommodated an ostler or housekeeper in the service of the minister.

Both houses follow a similar architectural scheme, though No.60 is handed in reverse. The front (north) façade of No.58 features a panelled door with plain fanlight to the right of the ground floor, encased in a doorcase of plain pilasters with decorative brackets supporting a cornice hood. To the left of the doorway is a sash window with vertical glazing bars (2 over 2). The defining feature is a segmental carriage arch to the right of the doorway, fitted with simple wrought iron gates of likely original date. The first floor displays three evenly spaced gabled half-dormers with decorative barge boards, each containing a semicircular-headed window with frame matching the ground floor. Below these windows is a gutter course.

No.60 presents a similar façade, handed, but with two gabled half-dormers rather than three, as the room above the carriage arch is absent. The west gable has a ground-floor window with a modern frame (at ground level due to rising ground height on this side), with two semicircular-headed windows as half-dormers above. Between these dormers is a date stone roundel inscribed '1879'.

The rear façade of No.58 features two half-dormers with a stairwell window at slightly lower level between them, and a ground-floor window to the right of the carriage arch. All windows have frames matching the front. A single-storey extension with mono-pitched roof extends to the right of the ground-floor window, with two small modern windows and a glazed door to its west face.

No.60's rear displays a long single-storey extension with mono-pitched roof, three modern windows, and a partly glazed door to its west face. This extension is modern, replacing original stables that formerly occupied the site. To the first floor are a half-dormer to the left and a stairwell window to the right, both containing sash frames with pitched cills of awkward shape. This unusual configuration results from the original stable block being taller than the present extension, with its mono-pitched roof resting just below the original cill level.

Both façades are finished in lined render and painted, with eaves courses to the front. The gabled roof of the main houses is covered in what appears to be Bangor blue slate. Two tall yellow brick chimney stacks serve the houses. The roof overhangs at the west gable with decorative barge boards supported on matching brackets. Metal rainwater goods are fitted throughout. The gates leading westward to Comber Non-subscribing Presbyterian church, with decorative detailing, stand immediately adjacent and may be contemporary with the houses themselves.