Race View, 19 Factory Road, Enniskillen, BT74 6DT

Race View is an early 19th-century two-storey house, picturesquely situated to the north-east of Enniskillen town centre, that has been altered twice since it was built — once in the late 19th century and again in the late 20th century. As a result, the interior is entirely modern and the exterior has lost much of its original character. The original country and lakeside setting has been adversely affected by an adjacent cinema complex, commercial units, and associated car parking.

The south-west (front) façade is symmetrically composed around three breakfronts, which appear to have been added in the late 19th century. The central breakfront is two-storey and gabled, and contains the main entrance: a flat-headed door opening with half-height sidelights, fitted with a timber panelled door dating from around 1950 and flanked by leaded lights. All window openings are flat-headed with cut stone sills. The original two-over-two sash frames have been retained internally, but top-hung uPVC frames have been added externally in front of them. The openings are symmetrically arranged: to the left of the entrance there are two ground-floor windows, one in the recess and one in the breakfront, with the first-floor windows being somewhat shorter, one to each breakfront and one to each recessed bay. To the right of the front door there are two further ground-floor windows, again one in the recess and one in the breakfront. The north-west gable is blank.

To the centre of the north-east rear elevation there is a two-storey gabled return. To the right of this return, at first-floor level on the main rear façade, there are two evenly spaced windows, again with uPVC frames over retained timber sashes. To the right of the return there is also a single-storey lean-to addition, which may date from the late 19th century; its windows are flat-headed with top-hung timber frames. Windows to the return itself are flat-headed, some arranged in bipartite pairs, and all are fitted with uPVC frames. To the left of the return there is a hipped-roof sunroom added around 1980, chamfered in plan, with uPVC French doors opening onto a small paved patio. To the left of the sunroom there is a window with the same sash-internal, uPVC-external arrangement; directly above at first floor is a similar window, and to the right of that is a further opening fitted with a uPVC frame only, with no retained sash internally. The south-east gable is otherwise blank save for a single central first-floor window of the same type. The roof is pitched and slated, with the breakfronts all finished with gables. Rainwater goods are cast iron. External walls are finished in ruled and lined render and rest on a slightly recessed plinth.

The house stands at the head of a short tarmac driveway within a mature garden. To the rear there is a large tarmac yard. Close to the north-east rear façade stands a former two-storey outbuilding that appears to have been built originally to serve the house but has been recently converted to commercial use and now accommodates two separate two-storey business units. To the south of the road there is a large GAA pitch enclosed by a tall roughcast rendered wall. To the north lies Race Course Lough. To the east stands a derelict factory building, and to the west the modern cinema complex with its car park.

The house takes its name from Race Course Lough, which lies to its north-east and was so named because a horse-racing course ran along part of its perimeter until 1823. The house does not appear on maps of the 1770s or of 1818 reproduced in W. Copeland Trimble's third volume of his History of Enniskillen, but it is shown on the first-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835. A valuation of November that year records the dwelling as the home of a Mr Harrington (or Hannington), with the main section measured at 35½ ft × 19 ft × 16 ft (two storeys), a porch of 7½ ft × 6 ft × 7 ft, two-storey additions of 20 ft × 17 ft × 16 ft and 17 ft × 6 ft × 7 ft, and a byre of 51½ ft × 21 ft × 10 ft. Although the footprint differed slightly from what exists today, the central two-storey sections were already present. The valuers classified the building as 1B — a slated structure in good condition, possibly 20 years old or more — suggesting construction after 1818. The house is named Race View on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1857. By the time of the second valuation around 1860, its dimensions were much as recorded in 1835, though with larger outbuildings. By this date the lease had been acquired by Andrew Teevan (born 1793), believed to have been a local merchant. Andrew died in 1865, and Race View was occupied by his widow Mary, who from 1867 sub-let the outbuildings to a Francis Fawcett; the two portions remained in separate hands until 1883. Mary Teevan died in 1869 and the property passed to her son Thomas, an army doctor who had witnessed action in the Crimean War and served in China, rising to the rank of Surgeon-Major. He did not retire from active service until 1875, and in the interim the property was managed by his sister Eliza. In 1874, in the valuers' own words, the house was "improved" — doubtless under Thomas's instructions. The original recorded width of the house was 35½ feet; the current front width is approximately 55 feet. The valuers do not record the precise extent of the work, but the evidence of the gabled breakfronts with their decorative bargeboards, combined with the increased width and changes in floor levels, strongly suggests that the front bays were added at this stage, with some enlargement to the rear. Despite these works, the rateable value rose by only £2, from £14. Dr Thomas Teevan acquired the freehold of Race View from the Archdall estate in 1876 and lived there until his death in Dublin around 1898. The next owner was James Cooper, believed to have been a solicitor, who remained until 1914, when the property was acquired by Thomas Rutherford. In 1925 Mr Rutherford sold part of the associated land to the newly established Enniskillen Rugby Club, which played there until poor drainage forced them to abandon the site in the early 1930s. Mr Rutherford died in 1940 or 1941, and his wife in 1954. The house then passed to their daughter Violet McNeery (or McNeary), whose family lived at Race View until the 1970s. The house was extensively renovated internally around 1980 and was acquired by its present owners around 1991.