16 Main Street, Scarva, Craigavon, County Down, BT63 6LS

A two-storey, four-bay mid-terrace townhouse located on the east side of Main Street in Scarva, constructed between 1820 and 1839. The building represents the northward expansion of Scarva village following the opening of the Newry Canal in 1742, which connected Carlingford Lough with Lough Neagh to transport coal from east Tyrone to Dublin. The village itself was founded in 1746 by John Reilly of Scarva House beside the canal. By 1829 the village had grown to 170 people in 33 houses, with fairs held four times yearly and a notable salt works. The house appears to have been constructed around an earlier core and retains much historic fabric, though its proportions and style have been largely unaltered despite modern repairs and alterations.

The building presents a rectangular plan form with a two-storey rear return. It sits within a continuous terrace running the full length of the east side of Main Street. The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged, with the door positioned right of centre flanked by two windows on either side. The first-floor windows are diminished in height and positioned directly above the ground-floor openings except for one right of centre. The structure is finished in wet dash render with plain long-and-short quoins and a smooth rendered plinth band. Pitched natural slate roofing is fitted with clay ridge tiles and a wet dash chimney, with partially removed cast-iron rainwater goods. Windows are 6/6 vertically hung timber sliding sash. The rear elevation appears to have had windows replaced with modern top hung casements at least at ground floor level. A photograph dating from around 1910 shows the house was originally lime rendered with only seven windows; an eighth window was inserted by 1971.

The left gable adjoins 14 Main Street and the right gable is abutted by the two-storey building at 18 Main Street. A heavily vegetated embankment lies to the rear. Opposite the house is a modern information centre adjacent to a landscaped public area, beyond which runs the Newry Canal.

Historical records show the property appeared on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and was listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828-1840 as one of six exempt houses not of sufficient value to be taxable. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856-1864, the occupier was William Robinson and the lessor was John Temple Reilly. The property comprised a house, office and small garden valued at £3, later raised to £4, with annual rent of £3 10s. It was described as a two-storey slated house that was "slightly decayed but in repair" with a single-storey outbuilding. Subsequent occupants included Elizabeth Robinson, Isabella Fadden (1878), John Robinson (1881), John Stevenson (1884), William Stevenson (1892), and John Fleck (1903), who was a constable at the neighbouring police barracks. The house remains in use as a dwelling.