Parkrow House, 12 Parkrow Road, Dromore, Co Down, BT25 1DP

Parkrow House is a detached Georgian gentleman farmer's residence built around 1780, situated on the south side of Parkrow Road in Dromore. The house exemplifies the type, with much of its original Georgian character surviving alongside fabric and detailing representing historic changes, including the addition of pavilions and an Edwardian refurbishment. The original setting also survives, notably a good avenue and yard.

The main house is symmetrical in composition with three bays across two storeys and an attic, rendered in rough-cast. It is T-shaped on plan, facing west with extensive landscaped gardens to the west and south. A pitched natural slate roof, reroofed around 1975, features black clay ridge tiles and tall rendered profiled chimneystacks rising from each gable end. Moulded cast-iron guttering sits in ogee corbels above a moulded eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes.

The symmetrical front elevation is five windows wide. Windows are square-headed with smooth render surrounds, cut stone sills and replacement timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes. The central doorway has a three-centred arch and replacement tripartite timber doorcase with spider-web fanlight, tracery sidelights and a raised-and-fielded timber panelled door opening onto stone flagged forecourt.

A pair of single-storey bowed pavilions flank the main house. The north pavilion is an original structure dating to the mid-19th century; the south pavilion was rebuilt around 1990 to designs by Brian Emerson. Both feature hipped natural slate roofs with rolled lead hips and ridges, and semi-conical slate roofs extending to curved bay windows to the west. Each multi-pane curved bay window is a replacement, replicating the original design. The north pavilion is abutted by a further single-bay single-storey accretion with a replacement timber Wyatt window. Three pairs of multi-pane timber French doors to the south pavilion are framed with fluted Doric pilasters and entablature, opening onto a raised stone flagged platform with steps.

A canted two-storey return with attic, also rebuilt around 1990, adjoins the south gable. This features a hipped natural slate roof with rolled lead hips and ridges. The rear elevation shows 6/6 timber sash windows at first-floor level and 8/8 at ground-floor level.

The rear elevation of the main house is abutted by the multi-bay two-storey return. A gravel rear yard is enclosed by rubblestone walls and a range of single-storey rendered outbuildings to the north, built around 1950. A further single-storey rubblestone outbuilding is attached to the east with pitched corrugated iron roof and vertically-sheeted timber vehicular doors. The south of the yard is enclosed by a single range of single-storey rubblestone outbuildings with split levels and corrugated iron roofs, featuring replacement sheeted timber stable doors.

A rear gravel drive extends from the rear yard northwards, opening onto the road via a pair of wrought-iron gates and sweeping rendered walls. The front gravel drive extends from the landscaped gardens to the northwest, opening onto the road via a pair of rebuilt sweeping stone walls with rendered piers and wrought-iron gates.

Historical records show the house was first documented in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 as the residence of Reverend James Collins, later occupied by William Cromie who leased it from John Woodhouse at £30 annually. The 1856–64 Griffith's Valuation notes the house sat on over 18 acres and was valued at £18, with a description of a "respectable situation, neat avenue, rather hilly roads to it". The valuation lists the house and pavilions alongside a range of single and two-storey outbuildings. Map evidence shows that the two pavilions flanking the main house and a rear return were added in the mid-19th century, though some outbuildings predate the main house and others to the south of the rear courtyard may be contemporary with it.

The house passed through the Cromie family before George Todd, a linen merchant, took ownership in 1898. He lived there with his wife, three children and a domestic servant. The twelve-room house was designated first class. By 1911, only one daughter remained at home, but the family employed two servant girls. In the 1930s, valuers listed accommodation as four bedrooms, three reception rooms, a kitchen, pantries, a scullery, a bathroom with hot and cold water and a WC. Thomas Aubrey Smith, a surgeon, was the last noted owner, moving to the house in 1938. The house continues in domestic use.