Parochial House, 50 Brook Street, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT78 5HE

Parochial House, 50 Brook Street, Omagh

A detached three-bay two-storey-over-raised-basement stone parochial house, built around 1865 on the south side of Brook Street. The building is part of a significant Roman Catholic institutional complex that includes the Sacred Heart Church and the former Christian Brothers School, now used as a parochial hall and parish office.

The house is an unusual example of its type, being nearly a perfect square in plan and symmetrical on all elevations. It is constructed of square-and-snecked rock-faced basalt with a chamfered sandstone plinth, a stringcourse between ground and basement floors, and straight-channelled sandstone quoins that are V-jointed at basement level. The roof is hipped natural slate with red brick chimneystacks topped with cut sandstone cornices and plinths. Ogee cast-iron gutters are carried on carved sandstone corbels.

The principal north elevation is distinguished by a central segmental arch-headed painted timber moulded four-panelled door with a central fillet and plate glass fanlight, positioned within a rebated splayed surround flanked by clamp buttresses with offsetting. The entrance is accessed by a stone perron (monumental steps) vaulted over a sunken channel with brick soffit and finished with cast-iron railings with twisted ends. Above the door is a simple frieze and cornice. The first floor has a central bipartite square-headed 1/1 sash window with double-rebated surrounds. The basement and ground floors feature segmental arch-headed painted timber 2/2 sash windows with stone sills; basement windows have red brick surrounds while those above have flush sandstone surrounds.

The east and west elevations are three windows wide and identically detailed. The rear elevation has windows of varying heights, with a square-headed replacement door and overlight at basement level to the centre.

A painted timber and glazed single-pitched greenhouse is attached to a single-storey boundary wall that extends west from the south elevation. To the southeast of the house is an outbuilding court containing a modern flat-roofed garage to the east, a multi-bay single-storey carriage house to the west, and a multi-bay two-storey hipped roughcast outbuilding to the rear with a hipped slated roof, square-headed painted timber 3/6 sash windows (some blocked with vertically sheeted panels), a square-headed vertically sheeted door to the left, and a segmental arch-headed modern garage door to the right.

The building is situated on an elevated site. To the east are the former Christian Brothers School and the Sacred Heart Church. A modern parochial house stands to the southwest.

Historical records show the site as unoccupied land in the 1860s valuation revisions before being developed. By 1869, it was listed as a "house, offices and land" valued at £42, with a note recording the building would cost approximately £2000 and was "substantially built" with a "good site". The house was built during the pastorate of Reverend Mannasses O'Kane, whose portrait hangs in the parlour. The building first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905–6.