Strabane Grammar School, 4 Liskey Road, Miltown, Strabane, Co Tyrone

Milltown Lodge (now Strabane Grammar School) is a large, irregular two-storey former gentleman's country residence of around 1836, with mild Picturesque and Tudoresque influences, believed to have been designed by William Vitruvius Morrison. It stands within spacious grounds on the east side of Liskey Road, less than half a mile south of Strabane town centre. The building was converted to use as a grammar school in 1955–56 and greatly extended to the rear in 1959, with many windows enlarged in the process, all chimneystacks removed, and the interior layout and detailing considerably altered.

The original building comprises a large square two-storey north-facing block with a narrower two-storey return to the south-east. Large two-storey modern extensions of 1959 project from the east and west sides of the return. The original section is finished in painted roughcast with an ashlar sandstone base course and painted render surrounds to the window openings. The overhanging roof has gable ends of various sizes, bargeboards with decorative mouldings, and curved soffits. The roof is covered in artificial slate and all chimneystacks have been removed.

The front (north) elevation is asymmetrical, with a large gable to the left and an almost centrally positioned full-height gabled bay. At ground floor level within this bay is a large semicircular-headed archway, which appears originally to have been open but is now filled with a wrought-iron security screen and gate. The archway has a bevelled sandstone reveal and drip moulding, with a projecting sandstone course with dentils above. At first floor level within the bay there is a window with a recent replacement casement frame. To the left of the bay at ground floor level is a tall window with a four-light mullioned and transomed timber frame. At first floor level on this side there is a large window with a recent replacement frame, which appears to have been enlarged as it sits off-centre within the gable. To the right of the bay at ground floor level there is a large, roughly square window with a six-light mullioned and transomed timber frame. At first floor level, out of line with the ground floor opening, is a broad window with a recent casement frame.

The left-hand side of the east elevation is now entirely occupied by the later 20th-century additions. To the right, the east façade of the main original block has a symmetrical arrangement of openings. At ground floor level there are two square single-storey bays — possibly Edwardian additions — with hip roofs and mullioned and transomed windows. At first floor level there are two relatively small windows with recent frames, both partly set within a gable.

The west elevation comprises the main original block to the left and much of the original return to the right, where the building merges with the 1959 additions. The main block has three windows at ground floor level: the two larger outer windows have four-light mullioned and transomed frames, while the smaller central window has a recent frame. At first floor level there are three large windows, probably enlarged, all with recent frames. On the ground floor of the return there is a probably enlarged window to the left with a recent frame. To the left of this, beyond a now redundant chimney breast, is a modern shallow flat-roofed entrance bay. At first floor level there are three windows, two of which are identical, located within half-dormers and fitted with four-light mullioned and transomed frames; the third, to the far left, is much smaller and has a recent frame.

Despite the modern additions, part of the rear façade of the main block remains visible. It consists of two gables of differing size. The left-hand gable is now largely obscured by part of the modern extension, though an upper-level window with a recent frame is still exposed. The larger right-hand gable has an enlarged window at each floor, both with recent frames.

To the immediate north of the original building is a car park; to the west is a lawn; and to the east is a recently erected single-storey prefabricated classroom block.

The history of the site begins with an earlier house recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34 as "Milltown Lodge" — a long two-storey building that appears to have faced westwards and was accompanied by a series of single- and two-storey, mainly thatched outbuildings to the south. In 1832, the house was recorded by valuers as the home of General Hamilton. It subsequently passed to Major John Humphreys following his appointment as agent to the Abercorn estate. At some point between 1834 and around 1836, Humphreys demolished the original dwelling and replaced it with the somewhat larger house that survives today. Documents within the Abercorn Papers indicate that the new house was designed by William Vitruvius Morrison, who had likely been introduced to Humphreys through work he had carried out for the Duke of Abercorn at Baronscourt. The house appears to have been complete by at least 1839; documents record that it cost £2,000 to construct, with the gate lodge accounting for a further £120. Both the house and the lodge bear the hallmarks of Morrison's many-gabled cottage style. The Humphreys family remained at Milltown until 1881, after which William Harpur's family occupied the property until 1954–55.

Among the notable residents of Milltown Lodge was the 19th-century poet and hymn writer Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander (née Humphreys), who lived there between 1833 and 1850, when she married the Reverend William Alexander. Three of her best-known hymns — "Once in Royal David's City", "There is a Green Hill Far Away", and "All Things Bright and Beautiful" — were written while she was at Milltown. They were published in 1848 in a collection entitled Hymns for Little Children.

In 1954–55 the building was acquired by Tyrone Education Committee for use as a new non-denominational grammar school for boys and girls. The school, initially designed to cater for 89 pupils, opened in 1956. A large classroom extension added to the south in 1959 raised the pupil intake to 225. Further temporary classroom blocks have since been erected to the north and east of the original building.