North West Regional College, 10 Derry Road, Strabane, Co Tyrone BT82 8DX

North West Regional College, formerly known as Strabane Academy, is a detached four-bay two-storey stone building constructed around 1880. It stands on the west side of Derry Road in Strabane, facing east, set back from the road within its own grounds enclosed by a low rubble-stone wall with stacked coping and a pair of piers supporting replacement gates.

The building is T-shaped on plan with a lean-to section to the rear and a former coach-house adjoining an enclosed yard to the northwest. The pitched roof is covered with artificial slate and topped with black clay ridge tiles, with yellow brick chimneystacks to all gables fitted with clay pots. Decorative timber barge-boards, possibly replacements, with finials adorn all gables, and the eaves are timber-lined with replacement metal guttering and downpipes, though rafter feet remain visible.

The walling is constructed of rough-hewn limestone, roughly coursed with a rubble-stone plinth and sandstone offset. The walls were formerly rough-cast rendered, though this render has since been removed from much of the building (rough-cast remains only on the first floor of the rear west gable). Dressed sandstone ashlar is used to quoins and all window and door openings. Windows are segmental-headed with dressed sandstone ashlar surrounds, keystones and sills, containing single-pane timber sash windows with convex horns; some upper sashes have a single glazing bar.

The front east elevation comprises a two-bay two-storey advanced gable to the left and a two-bay two-storey section set back to the right. At the inner corner sits a segmental-headed front entrance with surround matching the windows, furnished with a replacement timber panelled door and original glazed overlight opening onto a concrete platform. An original bronze foliate door bell is set in the stone door surround.

The south elevation is four bays wide with an off-centre single-bay gabled projection to the right, containing a segmental-headed door opening. This has a replacement timber panelled door and original glazed overlight opening onto a concrete platform. The west rear elevation comprises a two-bay two-storey advanced gable to the right with a further two-bay section to the left and a single-storey lean-to to an enclosed yard. The north elevation is a single large gable with three windows to the ground floor, two to the first floor, and a single window at attic level, abutted by a tall rubble-stone wall with a pair of stone piers supporting steel gates giving access to the former coach-house and small yard.

The Academy was established by a number of leading businessmen and professional people in the late 19th century as a finishing school. They leased the plot of land from the Duke of Abercorn. The property first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1905 captioned "Strabane Academy" and appears again in the 1951 edition as "Academy Boys Primary School." According to Valuation Revisions dating from 1883, the occupier was Amos Kerr in 1885, with the property described as a "school house and land" valued at £28 and leased from the Duke of Abercorn.

The first principal in 1895 was Mr Aeneus Kerr. The curriculum included Greek, Latin, English, French and Mathematics. It was a fee-paying, non-denominational school designed to bridge the gap between local primary schools and the requirements for entry to higher education institutions. Pupils were entered for entrance examinations to Belfast Grammar Schools including Methodist College and Belfast Institute. Changing demographics and the institution of free grammar school education from 1948 made it increasingly difficult to sustain the Academy. It closed in 1964 following the opening of a new secondary school, with the outgoing principal, Mr Sam Stirling, becoming principal of the new amalgamated primary school.

Since its closure, the building has been used as a centre for educational administration and local meetings. By 2009, it served as a music school. Whilst the overall composition remains intact with some internal features surviving, alterations and layout changes have reduced its architectural interest.