Prospect House, 36 Coagh Road, Stewartstown, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, BT71 5JH

Prospect House is a well-proportioned, two-storey, three-bay detached farmhouse built around 1860, and a substantially original example of a mid-19th century strong farmer's house. It stands in the townland of Killymurphy and is currently in use as a dwelling. The house retains many original features, including internal doors and staircases, though the window frames appear to have been replaced in the early 20th century. The early farm outbuildings also survive, and together with the house they form a group of considerable value.

The house faces southeast and is finished in painted render with a hipped slated roof. To the rear there is a large, gable-ended two-storey return and a smaller hipped-roofed single-storey return to the side. A collection of agricultural buildings to the rear, combined with the L-shaped house itself, encloses a concrete yard. There are two tall, rectangular red-brick chimneystacks to the main roof, one at the apex of each hip, each with unpainted cut-stone capping and four clay chimney pots arranged in a line. Rainwater goods throughout are cast-iron.

The front southeast elevation is painted render with chamfered and painted stone quoins. At its centre is a semi-circular headed, undecorated door opening containing a replacement timber door set: a square-headed panelled timber door with sidelights — the lower panels of which are timber — and a fanlight above. To either side of the doorway is a square-headed window opening with a painted cut-stone sill. The windows are two-over-two timber sash with two-over-two sidelights, and the main panes are split horizontally. The first floor repeats this arrangement with three windows of the same type. The front door is reached via two low, wide cut-stone steps with rounded nosings. To the right of the entrance, set vertically into the wall in a weathered timber frame, is a cast-iron bell pull. On the lower step to the left is a cast-iron bootscraper; a small cast-iron stub on the upper step suggests it may have been relocated from that position.

The side southwest elevation is painted render with quoins and four symmetrically placed windows, two to each floor, matching those on the front elevation but without sidelights. The two-storey return is in line with and slightly behind this elevation.

The rear northwest elevation is painted render without quoins and has five window openings of various sizes, nearly all fitted with the same unusual two-over-two timber sash windows; the smallest opening has a one-over-one sash. A cast-iron soil stack and a cast-iron downpipe are on this elevation. The two-storey return projects from the right-hand side of this elevation, and the single-storey return sits to the left, in line with it.

The side northeast elevation is painted render with quoins to the left side only. It has two two-over-two timber sash windows at upper level and one matching window to the left of the ground floor. To the right, the single-storey return projects. A cast-iron downpipe descends in the centre of the elevation, meeting the gutter at the eaves of the return.

The two-storey return has a pitched slated roof with wide projecting eaves and two brick chimneystacks — one at the gable and one to the centre — both matching those on the main roof. It is painted render with quoins to the southwest corner. The southwest elevation of the return is two bays wide and is recessed slightly behind the southwest elevation of the main house. It has a square-headed door opening to the right of the ground floor fitted with a replacement uPVC patio door, a square-headed window opening to the left at ground floor, and two matching windows above, all with two-over-two timber sash windows. To the gable end of the return there is a central single-storey projecting porch with a gable end and a slate roof, with a single square-headed door opening right of centre fitted with a replacement tongue-and-groove timber door. The main gable of the return has four symmetrically placed square-headed window openings with cut-stone sills, two to each floor, in various sizes: the top right is a two-over-two sash matching those elsewhere, while the others are timber casement. A storey-height wall projects to the left in line with this gable. The northeast elevation of the return has two square-headed door openings with replacement timber doors; the door to the left has a rectangular light over it, and the door to the right has a square-headed window opening with a painted cut-stone sill and timber casement to its left. There is also a large square-headed window opening with a painted cut-stone sill and replacement timber casement window left of centre at ground floor, and three further similar openings of various sizes at upper floor level, along with an assortment of cast-iron rainwater and sanitary drainage fittings.

The single-storey return projects to the northeast and is finished in painted render with quoins to the southeast corner and a slated hipped roof. Its southwest elevation has a single square-headed window opening with a painted cut-stone sill and timber casement window. The northeast elevation has a single similar but smaller window. The rear northwest elevation has a single square-headed door opening to the right fitted with a timber door. A storey-height stone wall projects to the left from the corner of this elevation, forming part of the farmyard enclosure.

The house is set well back from the Coagh Road, approached by a long tarmac lane. The lane forks in front of the house: the right fork skirts the house to the east and leads to the farmyard to the north, while the left fork widens into a gravel turning area at the front of the house. A hedge forms the eastern boundary and mature trees the western boundary of the garden. At the junction with the Coagh Road stands a pair of square rendered gateposts with smaller flanking piers and connecting walls. All four piers have cut-stone coping with a low, almost flat profile; the connecting walls step in height from the taller inner pier down to the smaller outer one and also have cut-stone coping. The piers and walls are finished in painted render. There are no gates. A bungalow built around 2000 sits just inside the gate to the right of the lane. To the west of the house at the rear is a temporary-type sectional building in use as an office.

The yard to the rear is enclosed by the L-shaped house and its outbuildings to the north, with the spaces between the buildings filled by rubble walls, some partially rendered, with areas of repair and projecting stones forming a serrated coping. The main access to the yard is through a painted cast-iron gate in the northeastern wall, with flat-profile rails and decorative twists to the top. Further agricultural buildings enclose a second yard to the north of the first. These farm buildings mostly have pitched slate roofs with gable ends and dashed rendered walls, timber windows, and some cast-iron rainwater goods. To the northwest of the house is an ornamental garden with a lawn, mature shrubbery to the borders, and a brick-paved patio with a small pebble-lined pond. Garden paths around the western side of the house are brick paved and widen into a patio area adjacent to the southwest elevation of the two-storey return. The front garden has beds with mature shrubs and specimen trees, and an ornamental boulder.

The house was built between 1860 and 1863 for Frederick Harris, on land he leased from the See of Armagh. It replaced an earlier single-storey dwelling recorded in the first valuation of around 1833 as the home of a John Mann (or Main). A faint pencil note in the margin of the valuation book records the dimensions of the new house as 53 feet by 32 feet by 26 feet, with a return of 28 feet by 25 feet by 24 feet. Frederick Harris died in 1897 or 1898, and the house remained in the hands of his representatives until 1950, when the lease was sold or passed to a William Armstrong. James Armstrong acquired the freehold in 1953 and is recorded as owner and resident until at least 1972.