73 Main St., Bushmills, Co.Antrim

73 Main Street, Bushmills, is a two-storey, two-bay painted and rendered mid-terrace house and shop, built prior to 1834 as part of the extensive rebuilding of Bushmills carried out by the MacNaghten family of Bushmills House from the 1820s onwards. It forms part of a terrace on the west side of Main Street, with views northward to the Market Square, and sits immediately adjacent to the former courthouse at No. 75 to the south-east. The juxtaposition and contrast in scale between this modest building and the courthouse next door is considered particularly striking, and the building contributes strong group value to its surroundings. It was first recorded on the Townland Valuation Town Plan of around 1834, and the Townland Valuations of 1835 described it as a slated building of medium age, in sound order and good repair, measuring 20 feet by 28 feet and standing 16 feet 6 inches in height, then valued at £5 and occupied by a Mr Thomas Edgar as a private dwelling and shop, with a stable to the rear.

The building has a rectangular plan and a fibre cement pitched roof. An unpainted rendered chimney stack with a stepped cornice rises from the north-west side. Rainwater goods throughout are uPVC. The front elevation is of painted render with a textured finish and faces north-east, opening directly onto the paved Main Street footpath.

The principal elevation is three bays wide at ground floor level and two bays wide at first floor, with the left-side bays aligned vertically. All windows, doors, and the fascia are painted in contrasting colours. At ground floor level there are two separate entrance doorways and a traditional shopfront. The left-hand doorway contains a vertically sheeted timber door with a plain glazed transom light over it. The main entrance doorway, which is almost centred on the elevation, contains a pair of timber panelled doors with a glazed transom light over, all set within a slightly recessed timber frame surround; small carved timber corbel brackets sit to either side of the transom light, with a scalloped detail to the lead flashing above. The shopfront contains a large single glazed pane with a rising timber shutter fitted with metal fittings, painted in a contrasting colour. Above the shopfront, ceramic tiled signage spells out "GLASS'S Fruiterer Florist Est. 1986". At first floor level, the windows are timber sliding sashes painted in contrasting colours, set on painted sills. The shopfront and signage are considered subtle but expressive, and the attractive window display conserves the historic features of the shopfront, positively contributing to the overall character of the village.

The south-west rear elevation is unpainted rendered with a textured finish and sits within a gated enclosed yard. At first floor there are three square-headed window openings equally spaced, each currently concealed with plywood sheeting. At ground floor level, the rear is abutted by a full-width single-storey unpainted rendered extension with a shallow pitched lean-to corrugated metal roof and uPVC rainwater goods; this extension contains a single doorway leading to a small yard. The rear yard also contains three small, disused former outbuildings, each with unpainted rendered walls, small timber casement windows, vertically sheeted timber doors with traditional metal door furniture, and lean-to corrugated metal roofs, with uPVC rainwater goods. The south-east gable adjoins No. 75, the former courthouse. The north-west side adjoins No. 69 Main Street.

The building's occupancy history is well documented. By 1859, Griffith's Valuation recorded it leased by a Mr Daniel McCurdy to Thomas Nicholl, a local merchant, at an increased value of £5 and 10 shillings. Between around 1868 and 1891 it was occupied by John Templeton, a butcher who operated a shop from the premises. By the turn of the 20th century Archibald McCurdy, a local boot and shoemaker, was in residence, and the 1901 Census of Ireland described it as a second-class shop and dwelling consisting of six rooms. By around 1911 it had passed to Charles McCurdy, a merchant tailor, who remained until around 1930. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the property's value was increased to £12 and 10 shillings and it had been purchased outright by William John White, a local boot merchant. The White family continued to reside there at least until the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), by which time its total rateable value stood at £24. The building was listed in 1980 and was subsequently included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to preserve the built heritage of a village that holds the highest number of listed buildings in the north-east of Northern Ireland.

Main Street as a whole was described in the 1972 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide as "a well-scaled street" in which "many good doorways and shopfronts remain," observing that while no building apart from the former courthouse was individually worthy of special mention, "the unity of the street frontages must be maintained."