Site of former no. 30 Townsend Street, Strabane, Co Tyrone

This site on the east side of Townsend Street at the junction of Back Row formerly contained a one and a half-storey dwelling of possible pre-1833 construction, which was demolished sometime after 1983, apparently as part of a road widening scheme affecting the entrance to Back Row.

The building is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833-34. According to a First Survey description from February 1970, it was a one and a half-storey house with harled walls and a slated roof. The entrance was set within a semicircular opening and flanked by drop-hung windows with glazing bars. A modern flush door with three-pane sidelights occupied the central position, with a fanlight featuring radial glazing bars above.

Historical records indicate that much of Townsend Street in the early 19th century comprised modest single and one and a half-storey dwellings, many probably of 18th-century date and vernacular in character, according to the valuation grading system of the period. The second valuation of 1857 records the property as occupied by Michael Kirk, who leased it from Rosanna Patton, with a rateable value of £1-10-0 suggesting possibly a single-storey structure. The property saw numerous occupants throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including William Haughey, Anne Loughrey, Annie Glacken, Hannah McPhelomey, Ann Foster, Catherine McManus, and others. Between 1899 and 1902 the property stood vacant. In 1921 the house was recorded as "down" in the valuation book, a term suggesting possible remodelling or enlargement rather than complete demolition. The 1970 First Survey describes what appears to be a vernacular Georgian dwelling, consistent with the surveyor's belief in its pre-1833 origins. William John Rankin acquired the freehold in 1922 and subsequently let the property to Patrick Rush, William McLaughlin, and others. By 1956, Strabane Urban District Council became the lessor, a position maintained until at least 1972. The building was demolished sometime after 1983.