6 Mill Street, Cushendall, Co.Antrim

6 Mill Street, Cushendall, is a terraced three-bay, three-storey rendered commercial building, originally constructed before 1859 and possibly substantially reconstructed around 1870. It sits close to the central crossroads of Cushendall, forming part of a continuous terrace of buildings of varying heights lining the south-east side of Mill Street, between No. 4 and No. 8 Mill Street.

The building is rectangular in plan, facing northwest. Its pitched roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there are two steel skylights to the rear pitch. The chimneystack to the left (north-east) is replacement red brick, while the one to the right (south-west) is rendered. Rainwater is carried by cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets and cast-iron downpipes.

The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render with rusticated render soldier quoins. Window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills and horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sliding sash windows — those on the first floor have slender ogee horns and those on the second floor have convex horns.

The full-width ground-floor shopfront is finished in painted stucco and incorporates a tripartite timber frame doorcase to the right, providing access to the upper floors via a timber panelled and glazed door. The shop display window is a replacement timber frame unit, accompanied by a timber panelled and glazed shop door. All elements of the shopfront are framed by painted stucco fluted pilasters on stepped plinth blocks, surmounted by a replacement timber fascia framed by scrolled and fluted console brackets and a full-width cornice. The north-east side of the building abuts No. 4 Mill Street, and the south-west side abuts the lower adjoining No. 8 Mill Street. The rear elevation is partially obscured by a twin-gabled, two-storey rendered extension built around 2005. A single window opening at second-floor level on the rear elevation contains a single-pane timber sliding sash window. To the rear there is a small yard enclosed by a tall rendered wall with a steel gate.

Although little historic interior detailing survives, the original staircase has been retained, and together with the front elevation — which preserves its historic character and proportions — the building remains a good example of a late 19th-century terraced commercial property.

The majority of the two- and three-storey buildings along Mill Street were erected in the first half of the 19th century by the Turnly family. Francis Turnly, Cushendall's proprietor, had travelled to China in 1796 where he accumulated a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 he used this money to purchase the estate of Newtownglens from the Richardson family for £24,000, subsequently renaming the settlement Cushendall. At the time of purchase the village consisted of little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill, and a bridge. As the number of tourists travelling through the area — particularly those heading to the Giant's Causeway — increased, Turnly, described by the architectural historian Brett as an eccentric character who "effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property," developed the village into a coastal resort, with the erection of hotels and numerous commercial properties.

No. 6 Mill Street was first recorded with certainty on Griffith's Valuation of 1859, which valued the building at £9 and noted it was initially leased by the Turnly family to a Ms. Mary Rennie. It may have been included in the earlier Townland Valuations of 1834, though it is difficult to identify specific structures in that source due to the loss of the accompanying Townland Valuation Town Plan for Cushendall. The Rennie family continued to reside at the building until around 1864, when it was briefly occupied by the Irish Church Missionary Society. The Cushendall Conservation Area Guide suggests the building was constructed or reconstructed around 1870, and the Annual Revision Town Plan of Cushendall (1906 to approximately 1935) indicates that the building had undergone major refurbishment or reconstruction at some point in the late 19th century, although the Annual Revisions themselves do not record any specific alteration during this period.

Occupants changed frequently from the 1860s until around 1888, when William John McFetridge, a local saddler, took possession of the building. The 1910 Census recorded that McFetridge resided there with his wife and children, operating his saddler's store from the ground-floor shopfront. The census building return described the property as a second-class shop premises consisting of six rooms, with extensive outbuildings to the rear including two stables, four cow houses, a piggery, a fowl house, a turf house, a potato house, and a store. The McFetridge family continued to occupy No. 6 Mill Street until the 1960s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the combined house and shop value was increased to £32. John McFetridge occupied the building until 1960, when it passed to a Mr. Charles Hamill, who remained at the site until at least the 1970s. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value stood at £37.

In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society publication on the Glens of Antrim described Mill Street as "an outstandingly good street by Ulster standards; there is almost nothing to jar the eye," and called for "the most careful and sensitive consideration of any change of any kind." The buildings along Mill Street were subsequently included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to be designated in the province — described as "testimony itself to the special qualities of the village." That same year Cushendall was chosen as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 6 Mill Street was listed in 1976.

The building was used as a bakery during the 1980s and underwent extensive renovation in 1993, which included re-slating the roof in natural slate, the installation of cast-iron rainwater goods, and the fitting of new window frames. The renovation also provided a new timber shopfront sympathetic to the design of the original, and the modern rear extension was added at that time.