Erganagh Rectory, 21 Glenpark Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT79 7SR

Erganagh Rectory is a detached former rectory built around 1840, located on the south side of Glenpark Road in Omagh. It is a three-bay, two-storey structure over a basement, constructed in sandstone rubble (squared on the principal elevation) with ashlar sandstone quoins over a projecting plinth. The building exemplifies the substantial rural rectories that form a significant element of County Tyrone's architectural heritage. Its design is reminiscent of the work of William Farrell, though this attribution is not definitively confirmed. Farrell was known to be active in the area, working for the Board of First Fruits and designing major civic buildings in County Tyrone.

The building is characterized by austere detailing with little external ornamentation, befitting its important former role as a glebe house. The roof is hipped natural slate with leaded ridges over a corbelled eaves course; corbelled ruled-and-lined chimneys with original clay pots crown the structure. The principal elevation faces north and features a rectangular plan with a full-height bowed bay to the south-west. Windows are square-headed timber-framed 6/3 sliding sash (6/6 to ground floor) set in stepped sandstone surrounds with keyblocks and sandstone sills.

The principal north elevation displays a central recessed bay containing the entrance, accessed by sandstone steps over a passage around the basement. The doorway is flanked by sandstone pilasters and sidelights with margin lights, surmounted by a plain frieze and cornice supported on console brackets, with a segmental-headed fanlight above. The single window at first floor and windows in the left and right bays contain margin lights (except those to the basement). The east elevation has a central four-panelled timber door flanked by sidelights to the basement, a ground-floor 6/3 sliding sash window flanked on the right by a square-headed alcove, and double-leaf timber-framed glazed doors at first-floor level. The south elevation contains four windows at each storey, while the west elevation comprises two windows to the left and a bowed bay to the right, each containing two windows per floor. The south-west bowed bay forms a distinctive feature of the composition.

The building sits within mature gardens with associated outbuildings and a walled garden to the south. An enclosed yard at basement level to the east is accessed via stone steps. A rubble retaining wall supports two-storey lean-to rubble outbuildings to the south-east, with a further one-and-a-half-storey rubble outbuilding abutted on its west side by a single-storey lean-to. A former single-storey stable block stands to the east. The boundary wall is partly surmounted by iron railings. The property is accessed from the north-west through a pair of square sandstone piers with flat coping supporting iron gates. A single-bay single-storey gatelodge (now modernized) stands to the west. The road frontage at the north is bounded by timber fencing and hedging.

Historically, the building is shown as 'Erganagh Glebe' on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854, replacing an earlier structure marked on the 1833 map. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905–6 identifies it as 'Erganagh Rectory'. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records it as a 'house and offices' occupied by Reverend D. Hart and valued at £21 16 shillings. Griffith's Valuation of 1858 records the property as 'house, offices, gatehouse and land' occupied by Reverend James Byrne and valued at £22, with a note that it had been 'much improved'. Valuation Revisions from 1860–64 record the building valuation as £36, suggesting improvements or additions around 1860. The valuation fell to £29 by 1905. Occupants changed to Reverend Gerald King Monarty in 1899 and Reverend Joseph R. Beattie in 1924. The Ordnance Survey memoirs describe the building as 'an old house, very uninteresting and shortly to be pulled down and a new one erected', though this prediction was not fulfilled. Contemporary sources credit William Farrell as the architect, noting the building's 'recessed panel decoration and cubic massing characteristic' of his work, and describing it as a 'three-bay, two-storied structure with a four-bay back'.