34 Main St, Scarva, Craigavon, Co Down, BT63 6LS

A two-storey single-bay mid-terrace townhouse pre-dating 1830, located centrally in Scarva on the east side of Main Street. The building is of late eighteenth or early nineteenth century date, originally lime-rendered and likely to be one of the earlier buildings in Scarva.

The external proportions have remained largely unaltered, though its historic character has been compromised by the insertion of modern doors and windows. The pitched natural slate roof (artificial slate to rear) is finished with clay ridge tiles. The rendered walls feature rough cast to the first floor with a plain platband. A replacement red brick chimney with corbelled courses and clay pots sits on the ridge. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods serve the building throughout.

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged, with the replacement timber front door positioned to the left and a single window to the right. The first floor window has been repositioned from the left to the right. Replacement uPVC windows appear throughout the building. The rear elevation is abutted by a subservient two-storey return to the right. The left gable is abutted by coal stores dating from the mid-twentieth century.

The building stands as part of a continuous terrace running the full length of the east side of Main Street. A heavily vegetated embankment lies to the rear. Opposite is a landscaped public area, beyond which runs the Newry Canal.

Historically, the village of Scarva was founded beside the newly-opened Newry Canal in 1746 by John Reilly of Scarva House. The canal opened in 1742 to connect Carlingford Lough with Lough Neagh, primarily to transport coal from east Tyrone to Dublin. Taylor and Skinner's 1777 map shows early development concentrated around the bridge over the canal. By 1797, the Topographica Hibernica described Scarva as a 'small neat village' with a large salt work and fairs held four times annually. In 1829, the population was recorded as 170 living in 33 houses.

The property is first shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. Griffith's Valuation initially lists it as the property of J T Reilly, with tenant Jane Carson, later becoming landlady herself. The house, office yard and garden were valued at £7.15s and described as a 'shop' although 'not well finished'. Successive occupiers included William Cloughey (1868), Thomas Hudson (1871), William Courtney (1890), John Hanna (1896), Jacob Hanna (1899), and Robert Darragh (1921). From 1922 the building is listed as two separate dwellings.

The 1901 census identifies the premises as a draper's shop occupied by Jacob J Hanna, a 22-year-old boot and shoe merchant, living with his three sisters who were all drapers. The 1911 census describes the premises as a drapery and boot and shoe warehouse, with Jacob J Hanna continuing to live in the seven-room house with his sisters. At the First General Revaluation in 1933-34, the building was assessed at £4, comprised two bedrooms, a kitchen and scullery, with rent set at 3 shillings weekly plus taxes. The building continues in domestic use today.

As a whole, the building has only a minimal level of surviving historic fabric and is not considered of special architectural or historic interest.