19 Main Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AE

A mid-terrace three-bay two-storey house over basement, built in the early nineteenth century, located on the west side of Main Street in Hillsborough. The building is rendered with ruled and lined painted finish, though rubblestone appears at the rear. It has a pitched roof of artificial slate with black clay ridge tiles and a pair of modern redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipe serve the rendered projecting eaves course.

The front east elevation is asymmetrical, three windows wide, with square-headed window openings fitted with painted concrete sills and replacement tripartite timber sash windows. An off-centre square-headed door opening with a replacement timber panelled door opens onto two concrete steps with a rectangular overlight. The integral carriage arch to the north bay is three-centred and contains a pair of original vertically-sheeted timber doors.

The south side elevation is abutted by the adjoining building No. 21. The north side elevation is similarly abutted by the adjoining building No. 17, with redbrick walling exposed to the carriage arch. The west rear elevation is two-storey over basement, three windows wide. It is constructed of rubblestone with cement pointing and redbrick surrounds to all openings. This elevation was abutted by a modern unrendered two-storey concrete block return, built around 1990, which has a door on the ground floor and a large uPVC window to the first floor. The widened square-headed window openings have brick relieving arches, concrete lintels, concrete sills and uPVC windows.

The rear plot contains a pair of rubblestone outbuildings. The larger is two-storey with a partial natural slate roof featuring king-post trusses and a gabled loading bay. This building corresponds to a large square out office depicted on the 1830s Townland Valuation plan, which measured thirteen yards by nine yards and two storeys high and functioned as a bakery storeroom.

The house first appears on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map as an oblong house with coach arch forming part of a terrace extending from No. 23 to the bottom of Main Street. An early map of circa 1800 indicates that Nos. 13 to 19 Main Street were constructed between 1800 and 1833 on former wasteland. In the 1830s the occupant was John Hatton, with the house valued at £10 10s. By 1861 Thomas Scott occupied the house, renting it from the Marquis of Downshire. At that time it was classified as a 1B building, ten by eight yards, and valued at £15. Scott later purchased the house from the Marquis and occupied it until his death on 17 November 1890. According to his will, Scott was a retired merchant who left the house and effects valued at £339 15s. 6d. to Francis Scott.

The house lay vacant until 1894 when George Murray took possession. In 1896 it was converted into a local post office, occupied by various people between 1894 and 1912, though the 1901 Census records it as uninhabited. By 1910 the post office had moved to No. 2 at the bottom of Main Street. The 1911 Census records No. 19 as a private dwelling, though still vacant. In 1912 William Lennon came into possession, followed in 1916 by David Donaldson. Samuel Magee occupied the house in 1920, and in 1929 Thomas Baxter, a former farmer, became the final occupant recorded in the Annual Revisions. The removal of the post office resulted in the valuation being reduced to £12 in 1914.

The building was substantially altered in the mid-twentieth century, removing most of its historic detailing both externally and internally. An original timber staircase to the basement level survives. In 1974 Brett described Nos. 15 to 19 Main Street as two-storey houses, probably of stone underneath, noting that the windows had been recently "unhappily altered". A two-storey return with a kitchen extension on its upper storey was constructed around 1990. Towards the end of the twentieth century, more appropriate windows were installed in the front elevation. The house was listed in 1976 and delisted on 4 May 2012. Although it no longer retains special interest, the building now contributes significantly to the Hillsborough Conservation Area and forms part of a terrace of various building types on the west side of Main Street in the centre of Hillsborough.