51 Loy Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8PE

51 Loy Street is a modest rendered terraced house of two-and-a-half storeys, built around 1880, now in use as a dental practice. It forms part of a short terrace of similar scale along the eastern side of Loy Street, and has group value with its immediate neighbours at the adjacent properties to the south (built at the same time as part of the same development). The building is rectangular in plan, with a two-storey flat-roofed return and an adjoining single-storey flat-roofed return to the rear.

The front west elevation is set back from the street, with a tarmac parking area open to the pavement, replacing what was formerly a front garden. The ground floor has a doorway to the left and a square-headed window to the right. The doorway is elliptical-headed and fitted with a panelled timber door, flanked by two-panelled pilasters set on cut-stone pad stones. Above the door is a carved stone surround with a decorative vermiculated keystone, and there is a projecting carved timber cornice at springer level. The window to the right is square-headed with cut-stone sills, but has been fitted with replacement uPVC casement windows. The upper level has two square-headed windows of the same type. The front elevation is finished in plain painted render resting on a shallow rendered plinth, with a carved stone dentilled course at eaves level supporting the eaves cornice. Rainwater goods to the front are cast-iron. The roof is covered in artificial slate and there is a polychromatic brick chimney with a profiled capping.

The rear east elevation rises to three storeys, the additional level being created by a split lower level within the building. It is finished in unpainted cement render and fitted with an assortment of replacement uPVC windows, with uPVC rainwater goods. The return also has replacement uPVC windows. Both the two-storey and single-storey returns are joined and have flat roofs.

Internally, the original layout has been largely retained, preserving an understanding of the simple Victorian townhouse plan prior to its change of use. The building is well-proportioned and retains much of its original external character despite the window replacements. The door surround and dentilled eaves course add a degree of architectural formality to what is otherwise a modest composition. The scale and proportions of the building reflect those of the surrounding terrace, and it contributes positively to the streetscape shared with William Street, James Street, and Loy Street beyond.

The setting to the rear includes a small yard enclosed by a rubble stone wall, facing onto several outbuildings.

The site is shown as developed on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34. In a modification to the valuation of January 1835, carried out around 1838 following the raising of the rateable threshold from £3 to £5, the site was noted as one of thirty-five houses exempt from rating — that is, relatively modest buildings below rateable value. The earlier house on the site was still recorded in 1859, when it was occupied by a Samuel Ramsay and remained below rateable value. This house stood until 1880, when it and its two neighbours to the south were demolished and replaced by the short terrace that stands today. This development appears to have been carried out by a James Howard, who acquired the lease of the entire site from the Gunning-Moore estate in 1879. (The leaseholder's name was initially recorded as James Steward before being changed to James Howard; it is considered more likely that the name was wrongly recorded rather than that there was an actual change of leaseholder.)

The first recorded occupant of the house was an Eliza Ramsay — doubtless a relative of the previously mentioned Samuel — with a rateable value of £9-10-0. She was succeeded by Nicholas Craven in 1884, followed by Thomas Collins in the same year, George Robert Bear in 1888, and William Rice in 1897. In 1921 the lease passed to Dawson McAllister, and by 1938 James Ferguson was recorded as occupant. From 1944 the lease was held by John and George A. Ferguson, with James Ferguson recorded as occupant from 1960 and remaining so until at least 1972.