St. Mary'S Club, Mill Street, Cushendall, Co.Antrim

St. Mary's Club, 25 Mill Street, Cushendall, is a former National School built around 1864, forming the end of a terrace of predominantly domestic buildings on the northwest side of Mill Street. The building is two storeys tall and six bays wide in its current form, having been extended in 1950 by a further three bays to the west, matching the style of the original three-bay schoolhouse. The 1950 extension may have involved the significant alteration or complete reconstruction of what was originally a three-storey three-bay building that stood on the site; a late 19th or early 20th century photograph confirms that the original school occupied only the eastern three bays, and that the western portion formerly had simple Georgian-style glazing rather than the round-headed windows seen today. Despite this alteration, the extended building was designed to present a unified and consistent appearance.

The building is rectangular in plan, facing southeast. Its roof is pitched and clad in natural slate with clay ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks at either end. Cast-iron guttering sits on drive-through iron brackets fixed to a projecting eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes below. The walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render — scored to imitate ashlar — with a platband at first-floor sill level, a painted plinth course, and rusticated quoins at either end picked out in a contrasting colour. The window openings are round-headed throughout, fitted with replacement single-pane sliding timber sash windows with ogee horns and exposed sash boxes, all set within painted stucco architrave surrounds with raised keystones and painted masonry sills. The six-bay front elevation has two symmetrically placed round-headed door openings with quoined stucco surrounds, replacement timber panelled doors, and overlights. To the right of each door opening is a segmental-headed arched opening fitted with timber-framed glazed shopfronts with glazed timber panelled doors, inserted during refurbishment works around 1995. Above the right-hand entrance door is a sunken red sandstone plaque with inscribed lettering reading "CUSHENDALL / NATIONAL / SCHOOLS".

The southwest gable elevation is blind, with a chimney at the apex and a large painted panel stating "THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE". The six-bay rear elevation includes a single-storey lean-to extension added to the left during the refurbishment of around 1992. Rear openings are square-headed, with single-pane sliding timber sash windows to the right, fixed-pane square windows above the lean-to, and flush timber doors. The northeast side elevation is abutted by the adjoining building at No. 23 Mill Street.

Although the interior has lost its historic detailing, the building remains one of the most distinctive within the Cushendall Conservation Area. It is well-proportioned and its mid-Victorian character — simple gabled form, stucco window surrounds, and rusticated quoins — is largely intact externally.

The building's setting contributes meaningfully to its character. It terminates a continuous and largely uniform terrace along the northwest side of Mill Street. Adjacent to the southwest gable is a vehicular entrance with a replacement steel gate hung on a large square rendered pier, which significantly enhances the building's character on the street. This entrance leads to a rear yard surfaced in bitmac and enclosed partly by early rubblestone walling, which adds to the quality of the setting. Within the yard stands a single-storey structure with a duo-pitched roof, hipped to the east elevation, clad in natural slate with modern rooflights and windows, and smooth rendered painted walls.

The school has strong historical and social associations with the nearby St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, with which it has group value, and the building is included in the listing extent together with the entrance pillar on Mill Street. The school was administered under the National School System from the 1860s until the 1920s, primarily educating local Catholic children, while the national schoolhouse on High Street served the Protestant population. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, administration passed to the Trustees of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. The building continued in use as Cushendall Primary School until 1965, when it was converted into a factory and storehouse for the Glens of Antrim Tweed Co. Ltd. By at least 1972 it had been converted again into a Youth Club Hall for St. Mary's Church — the origin of its current name — and old signage from this period remains in place. Around 1992 the building was extensively refurbished, with the shopfronts installed, the rear lean-to added, and the interior converted to office and shop premises. It currently serves several community groups, including Cushendall's tourist office and the headquarters of the Glens of Antrim Historical Society.

The wider terrace of Mill Street, of which this building forms part, was largely developed in the first half of the 19th century by the landowning Turnly family. Francis Turnly, Cushendall's proprietor, had accumulated a fortune of around £75,000 during travels to China and in 1801 purchased the estate of Newtownglens from the Richardson family for £24,000, renaming the settlement Cushendall. He developed the village from what had been little more than a few cabins, a mill, and a bridge into a coastal resort, capitalising on growing tourist traffic passing through to the Giant's Causeway, and erecting hotels and commercial properties in the process. Mill Street was described in the 1972 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide as "an outstandingly good street by Ulster standards" with "almost nothing to jar the eye." The buildings along Mill Street were included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to be designated in Northern Ireland — and in that year the village was also selected as one of four pilot schemes in Northern Ireland for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 25 Mill Street was listed in 1976.