48 Main Street, Scarva, Co Down, BT63 6LS

A terraced, end-of-terrace, street-fronted two-storey three-bay building of the early to mid-19th century, located on the east side of Main Street in the centre of Scarva village, County Down. Originally constructed as two separate dwellings, the building subsequently became a post office and general store, and now operates as a village shop. It was delisted in November 2013 on the grounds that extensive alteration and refurbishment over the years had compromised its original character to the extent that it is no longer considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.

The building is rectangular in plan with a pitched natural slate roof finished with blue/black angled ridge tiles. The chimneystacks are rendered and rainwater goods are uPVC throughout. External walls are finished in painted smooth render. Windows throughout are replacement timber casements with projecting sills. The principal elevation faces west. At first floor level there are two large windows, widely spaced. At ground floor level, to the left, is a modern shopfront with a plate-glass window and modern metal door; in the centre is a replacement timber door with sidelights, reached by two stone steps; to the right is a paired window, partially boarded. The north gable abuts the adjoining building to the north. The south gable abuts a single-storey flat-roofed garage, with a blank exposed section. The east (rear) elevation was not accessed during survey.

The building sits at the heart of Scarva, directly opposite the junction with Station Road, forming part of a terrace that includes St Matthew's Parochial Hall to the north. St Matthew's Church lies to the rear of the building and its spire is visible above the roofline.

The history of the building and its site is closely bound up with the founding of Scarva itself. The village was established in 1746 by John Reilly of Scarva House beside the newly opened Newry Canal, which had been constructed in 1742 to connect Carlingford Lough with Lough Neagh, primarily as a means of transporting coal from east Tyrone to Dublin quickly and cheaply. The location of the building near the canal bridge suggests it may be among the earlier structures in the town, as this was where the initial development of Scarva was concentrated. Buildings are shown on the site on Taylor and Skinner's map of 1777. John Reilly obtained a patent for holding fairs and markets in anticipation of developing the town, and also constructed a small dock and quay, though the market had ceased by 1875. The 1797 Topographica Hibernica by Seward describes Scarva as a "small neat village" with a large salt works, where fairs were held four times a year. Capper's Topographical Dictionary records the population of Scarva in 1829 as 170 people living in 33 houses. By 1875 canal traffic was bringing cargoes of turf to Scarva and using the dock and quay for lighters. The population remained broadly steady through the 19th century, standing at 157 in 1910.

A building is shown on the site on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and is listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 as exempt, not reaching the threshold for valuation. By the time of Griffith's Valuation the building appears as two houses of similar size, valued at £2 and £2 5s respectively, with Robert Taylor — postmaster — recorded as landlord and a weekly rent of 1s 3d. The occupiers at that time were George Crozier, then Margaret Hawthorne and Michael Caulfield. Subsequent occupiers included James Gordon and Sarah Boyd in 1867, but by 1878 the building, now combined in valuation with the neighbouring Temperance Hotel at £15 5s, was operating as a post office and general store with a mission hall to the rear. From this point a single occupier is recorded for what had previously been three separate dwellings: initially Robert Taylor, and after his death his wife Mary Anne Taylor from 1902. Later occupiers included Samuel J. Mimms (1907), Anne Taylor (1908), Thomas W. Dunlop (1919), and Marjory Dunlop (1920), and the premises remained in the Dunlop family until at least the 1950s.

Robert Taylor, the long-serving postmaster, achieved considerable national fame in his later years on account of his remarkable longevity. His exact age was uncertain, but in 1898 newspapers across the British Isles reported that he had reached an age of somewhere between 114 and 134, describing him as "Her Majesty's Oldest Subject." It was noted that he could recall many exciting scenes from his early life as a Volunteer and could still sound his old Volunteer bugle call. His fame reached Queen Victoria, who sent him a framed portrait of herself in recognition of his "almost unprecedented age" and requested his photograph in return. The Methodist Conference formally congratulated him "on having attained through God's preserving care the position of being the oldest postmaster in the service of her Majesty Queen Victoria and the oldest member of the Methodist Church in Ireland," acknowledging his "unswerving loyalty to Methodism, evinced in the erection and maintenance of a hall for public worship on his own property." Robert Taylor died on 25 July 1898, still holding the postmastership of Scarva; his death was reported as the "Death of the Oldest Man in the Three Kingdoms."

The 1901 street directory lists among the principal buildings of the town the Methodist Mission Hall erected by the late Robert Taylor on his private grounds. Taylor had also run what the directory describes as a "most comfortable, homelike temperance hotel and bathroom," in conjunction with a post office offering money order and telegraphic services. The 1901 census records the postmistress as Mary Anne Taylor, living with her sister Eliza Dunlop who worked in the shop; she employed a 17-year-old girl as a telegraph clerk, and a cousin also lived with them and worked as a bookkeeper. By 1911 the occupier was Thomas Wilson Dunlop, a relative of Mary Anne Taylor and a general merchant who ran the premises as a shop and temperance hotel. He lived with his young American wife; also resident were a domestic servant and two young women aged 16 and 19 working respectively as a grocer's apprentice and a postal assistant.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in 1933–34 the building was in use as a combined shop and post office. The occupier was Marjory Dunlop, with Ann Brierly Dunlop recorded as owner in fee; the premises, which by then included the neighbouring property, comprised a house, shop, office, post office, and garden, revalued at £35. A large room to the rear of the shop was still occasionally used as a mission hall at this time. The post office subsequently moved to number 30 Main Street, and the building has continued in use as the village shop.

Photographs in Young and Quail's collection of images of Scarva show several views of the building in its earlier form. The building originally had two doorways: the central doorway, which remains today, gave access to the mission hall, while a door to the left opened into the shop and post office. By 1975, when the first survey photograph was taken, the left-hand doorway had already been replaced by a window, and the door and window openings have been further altered since.