14-16 Molesworth Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8NX

14-16 Molesworth Street is a two-storey former town hall, masonic hall and offices built around 1884, possibly to designs by architect John Lanyon. The building is now in retail and office use.

The structure is long and rectangular in plan, with a two-storey flat-roofed return to the rear. It is street-fronted on the north façade, which originally displayed Ruskinian Gothic character, now largely masked by extensive external modifications.

The front elevation contains two main entrance doors. The left doorway has a pointed arched opening with a replacement timber panelled door and fanlight, retaining a carved stone surround and carved stone tympanum above. The right doorway features a segmental arch with a carved stone surround and replacement timber door with overlight. Five shop windows have been created with modern timber frames and signboards. First-floor window openings have been enlarged with modern top-opening timber frames. A carved stone quatrefoil roundel window sits above the left doorway. An oriel window projects from the right side of the elevation, rising from a carved stone cushioned base supported on a polished granite column with carved floral capital, set on a narrow rendered base. A carved stone roundel date stone inscribed '1884' crowns the gable. The front façade was originally clay facing brick but was finished with dry-dash render around 1982; the original brick plinth has been rendered over. The rear south elevation is smooth rendered with an irregular arrangement of 1/1 timber sliding sash and casement windows. The main roof is fibre cement slate with red clay ridge tiles. Original chimneystacks have been removed. Three small gables occupy the roof centre, with a large gable to the left. Above the oriel window sits a steep pyramidal roof topped with a carved finial and flanked by small timber gablettes at its base.

The building has considerable social significance and retains a substantially intact main chamber internally, though the Victorian interior remains masked by modern external alterations.

Originally known as 'The Commercial Buildings', this terrace was constructed in 1884 and first recorded in the valuation book in 1885. It originally contained five separate properties. The eastern section (no. 16) was a house and offices for solicitor William James Venables. The central section (no. 14) housed the 'Cookstown Discount Company' on the ground floor with a Masonic hall above. The western section (no. 12) contained the Town Commissioners' offices (serving as town hall) on the ground floor and 'Young Men's Reading Rooms' above.

In 1907, John Malone took over the lease of no. 14's ground floor. In 1924, the Northern Ireland Ministry of Labour leased this space to establish a labour exchange. In 1928, the local Masonic lodge relocated to Fairhill Road and Cookstown Urban District Council converted the upper floor of no. 14 to offices. The Council also took over no. 12 in the same year. Between 1936 and 1956, the building saw high occupant turnover; the labour exchange relocated in 1939 and the Council quit their offices in 1956 following completion of a new town hall on Burn Road. By 1956 the building had been divided into 11 properties, with Peter Cosgrove as major leaseholder. It has remained in multiple occupancy since.

The front elevation retained much of its Ruskinian Gothic form when surveyed in September 1973 but had assumed its present form with enlarged windows and render by early 1982.

The building is street-fronted in the north-east corner of Cookstown on the south side of Molesworth Street, forming part of a mixed-height terrace.