48 Molesworth Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8PA

48 Molesworth Street is a well-preserved former Great Northern Railway (GNR) terminus and stationmaster's house, built around 1876 and opened in July 1879 to serve the GNR line between Cookstown and Dungannon. The building was designed by William Henry Mills, the GNR's Chief Civil Engineer, and its picturesque cottage-style appearance is closely comparable to the surviving station at Stewartstown. Cookstown is unusual among small Irish towns in having been served by two separate railway companies, both of whose stations survive and are listed; this building has group value with the adjoining railway buildings. The line between Cookstown and Dungannon was constructed between 1874 and 1879, with most of the work carried out after 1876. The station and associated buildings are recorded in the 1916 valuation as comprising a passenger station house, platform roofs and sheds, a store, and a weigh house. The GNR was nationalised in 1953, becoming the Great Northern Railway Board (GNRB), after which its network was progressively reduced. The Cookstown to Dungannon line closed to passengers in January 1956 and ceased operations entirely in January 1959. Annie M. McKay is recorded as occupying the former station house from 1956, with the GNRB as immediate lessor. The lease was acquired by Cookstown Urban District Council in 1962, and an A. D. McKay is recorded as occupant from 1965, remaining there until at least 1972. The Council acquired the lease of all or most of the site in the late 1960s. The building is now in use partly as a hockey clubhouse and partly as a day care centre, and is in quite original condition overall.

The building is detached and consists of two originally distinct parts: a single-storey station and platform range to the east, and a two-storey stationmaster's house to the west. The former station terminus is long and rectangular in plan; the former stationmaster's house is L-shaped, with a projecting two-storey porch at the inner corner of the L. There are two long covered platforms running parallel to the rear of the building. A further single-storey return, dating from around 2000, is incorporated beneath the platform and directly abuts the building. There is also a single-storey return to the east of the two-storey building, and a single-storey prefabricated addition to the yard.

The external walls throughout are faced in red and brown clay brick with yellow and straw clay brick dressings, set on a projecting stone plinth. The brickwork to the front south elevation of the single-storey station is laid in Flemish bond. Windows are 1-over-1 timber sliding sashes with margin panes, set under yellow and red brick voussoirs with sawtooth brick drip mouldings and cut-stone sills. A distinctive yellow brick string course runs along the elevation at window-sill level and again below the drip moulding. Windows are fitted with protective metal grilles. A segmental-headed double doorway, positioned slightly off-centre on the front elevation, has brick dressings matching those elsewhere and contains replacement panelled timber double doors. Above the doorway is a single-storey projecting canopy roof supported on painted wrought-iron rounded columns with decorative angle brackets; the canopy has painted timber fascias and soffits with carved timber brackets to the eaves and a simple carved timber bargeboard.

The front south elevation of the two-storey stationmaster's house has segmental-headed windows with brick dressings matching those of the station range. The central two-storey open porch at the inner corner of the L-plan contains a segmental-headed door to its west elevation, fitted with a painted timber panelled door and overlight. The gable-ended west elevation has a single round-headed window with dressings consistent with the rest of the building. The rear north elevation has segmental-headed windows as elsewhere, and the roof here is double-gabled, incorporating decorative roof trimmings. All gable-ended elevations have overhanging eaves with decorative timber brackets set on paired timber stops, decorative timber bargeboards, tie-beams, and vertical struts to the gables. A central timber finial surmounts the apex of each gable-ended roof. The single-storey building has two simple brick chimneys; the stationmaster's house has two tall brick chimneys. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate. Rainwater goods are uPVC.

The original timber platform canopy adjoins the rear of the building. The left side of the platform is open; the right side is enclosed by a lightweight timber structure dating from around 2000, which also encloses the original openings of the building behind. The platform canopy is supported by a central colonnade of painted decorative circular wrought-iron columns carrying large decorative iron brackets fixed to a horizontal beam structure at ceiling level. Flat riveted plate brackets and straps are fixed at alternate beam junctions. The underside of the ceiling is finished with painted timber panelling. The canopy has a flat roof with a face-fixed timber hanging picket to the fascia. The platform surface is flagstone. The north platform is supported off a medium-height random rubble wall with tall brick pillars and cast-iron railings. The south platform has been altered by the addition of a return dating from around 2000. Replacement train tracks have been added to the platforms.

The single-storey return enclosing the original south timber platform is a rendered lightweight timber structure containing a series of single-light windows and double exit doors, set onto an external patio formed from the former platform surface. The single-storey return to the rear of the stationmaster's house has a mixture of square-headed openings with timber casement windows. Access to the rear yard is through a square-headed timber doorway leading to a single-storey prefabricated room.

The building is set back from Molesworth Street behind a low brick boundary wall with painted cast-iron railings and matching brick pillars at regular intervals; the boundary walls are recent. The entrance is marked by brick pillars with concrete pyramidal caps opening to a short driveway. To the front of the building, a central landscaped terrace contains an open single-storey hipped-roof canopy set on stepped flagstones, supported on two painted circular columns with decorative painted wrought-iron bracketing, decorative timber hung picketing to the fascia, and a fibrous cement slate roof. A wind vane at the top of this canopy is supported on a timber-clad rectangular chimney-like structure with a pyramidal roof and a timber-picketed fascia. To the east of the entrance is a distinctive wrought-iron arched gateway set on replacement tall rock-faced artificial stone pillars with a boundary wall of cut-stone capping. The double riveted iron archway carries painted lettering reading "GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY"; the date of this gateway is uncertain.