9 Dublin Street, Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone, BT78 4AE

9 Dublin Street, Newtownstewart

A two-storey asymmetrical house built around 1820, situated on the west side of Dublin Street near the junction with Dublin Road and Main Street. The building is a rendered structure with a pitched natural slate roof, angled blue and black clay ridge tiles, and a polychromatic brick chimneystack with painted timber bargeboards.

The principal east-facing elevation is asymmetrical, comprising two bays with a square-headed replacement door to the left end and a single window to each bay. The original window openings are retained in the front elevation, preserving nineteenth-century proportions, but have been replaced throughout with inappropriate uPVC casements with smooth-rendered reveals and sills. The roughcast rendered walling sits over a smooth-rendered plinth with rendered cornice. A notable architectural detail is present at ground floor level, where the corners of the exposed gable are cut away. The south gable is blank. A modern single-storey lean-to extension is attached to the west elevation, which abuts the left bay, leaving an exposed section with modern timber casement windows to each bay. The north gable is entirely adjoined by the neighbouring building. Half-round painted metal gutters are fixed to a painted timber fascia.

Historically, buildings have occupied this site from at least 1833 according to Ordnance Survey records. The earliest clear documentary evidence appears in Griffith's Valuation and Town Plan of 1856–1864, where the property, then known as 4 Upper Street, is described as measuring 22 by 22.6 by 13.6 feet and valued at £2 5 shillings. It was occupied by Anne Porter and leased from Miss Emily Barton, noted as gentry in Slater's Directory of 1846. The valuation was revised upward to £3 in 1860–1863. Throughout the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, occupiers and lessors changed several times. By 1908, the lessor was R Donnelly. In 1934, valuers assessed the house as "fair", describing it as comprising a kitchen and one room on the first floor and three bedrooms on the second floor, with water available only in the yard. The value at that time, under the ownership of Mary Ann McNamee, was raised to £5 10 shillings. The house underwent substantial renovation in the 1980s.

The rear elevation has been extended and has lost some of its original detailing, as has the interior. These alterations, combined with the replacement of the original windows with unsuitable modern examples, detract substantially from the building's historic character. The property is situated within a conservation area, adjoining 7 Dublin Road and near St. Eugene's Church of Ireland and the former Minor Model National School.