3 Comber Street, Saintfield, Co Down, BT24 7AZ

3 Comber Street is a small, freestanding former schoolmaster's house built in 1878, located on the east side of Comber Street just north of Saintfield town centre. The building was constructed as the teacher's residence for a neighbouring school of 1873 (since demolished), and is possibly attributed to Northern Irish architect Mortimer H. Thompson, who is known to have designed the original school building. The property is now in use as a youth room for the nearby First Saintfield Presbyterian Church.

The house is a one and a half storey building constructed in polychrome brick, with a roughly square plan and gable ends. The walls are built in red brick with blue-grey brick courses and blue-grey and yellow brick headers to the front and north elevations. Two small diaper patterns in blue-grey brick appear on the front wall. The front and north wall corners project slightly in the manner of buttresses, and both walls have a bevelled plinth. The building is topped with a natural slate roof featuring overhangs, decorative purlin ends, plain bargeboards, and rebuilt brick chimneysstacks.

Windows throughout are flat-headed with 1/1 and 2/2 timber sash frames and painted cills. Many of the openings have bevelled reveals, and there is a single skylight to the rear. The front elevation faces west and is asymmetrical, with the entrance positioned to the right of centre. The entrance is marked by a diagonally boarded door with ornate strap hinges. To the left of the door is a pair of windows with a narrower window to the right. The south gabled elevation has two upper level windows, with the right-hand window placed higher than the left. The north gabled elevation has two upper level windows. The rear east elevation contains a broader window positioned to the right of an attached outhouse.

A small attached single-storey outhouse stands to the left of the rear elevation. The outhouse appears originally to have been broader, extending beyond the line of the south gable of the main house, but was reduced when the neighbouring hall to the south was extended northwards. The south façade of the outhouse has consequently been rebuilt and is rendered, and its original double-pitched roof has been replaced with a mono-pitched roof. Its east and north faces remain in brick, with two doorways featuring diagonally boarded doors to the north. A lean-to extension was added to the rear circa 1990, designed to blend with the original house through its wall finish. It features an east-facing window with a modern frame and a panelled timber door to the south.

The plot is enclosed from the street by iron railings with matching gates and tall plain square cement rendered piers, which appear to be relatively recent replacements. The property has a small garden to the front, a paved yard to the rear, and vehicle space to the north.

Historically, the house was completed in 1878 as recorded in valuation books, although it may have been built at the same time as the neighbouring school. The school, known as St Mary's or Saintfield No.2 National School, was constructed in 1872 and opened in January 1873 in connection with the Roman Catholic parish church in nearby Main Street. It was designed under the direction of Parish Priest Rev. Phelan, and sources indicate it was designed by Mortimer H. Thompson of Belfast. The colourful brick façade of the dwelling suggests it too was Thomson's work, though no documentary evidence confirms this attribution. Until 1887 the house was recorded as part of the school property and was exempted from rates. Thereafter it was listed separately, initially valued at £4-10 for rating purposes.

The earliest recorded occupant was Terence Monahan. By the 1901 Census, the retired 63-year-old Mr. Monahan was living here with his wife Jane and their two unmarried daughters, Ellen and Elizabeth. Ellen had succeeded her father as the teacher, and the house was noted as a second class dwelling with five rooms in use. The entire Monahan family remained at the property during the 1911 Census, with Elizabeth employed as the school's assistant teacher. Terence Monahan died in 1924, and Ellen Monahan retired as Principal of what had by then become known as Saintfield No.2 Public Elementary School in 1926, after which the family vacated the property. Edward O'Brien was recorded as the occupant in 1928, and Mrs. McCartney appears to have been living there in 1936, by which time the property no longer served as teacher's quarters.

St Mary's school closed in 1964 when the present St Mary's Primary School was opened off Old Grand Jury Road at the south end of town. The old school building was demolished sometime after 1974 but before 1992. The subsequent history of the teacher's house is unclear, but at some point, possibly post-1974, it was acquired by the neighbouring First Saintfield Presbyterian Church. A small lean-to extension was added to the rear sometime between 1974 and 1992.

Despite some loss of interior detailing and the removal of its rear return, the building retains significant historic and local interest. Its fine detailing, particularly to the openings both internal and external, and its polychromatic brick construction, make it a valuable contribution to the Saintfield Conservation Area. Materials include natural slate to the original house roof, with the extension appearing to have fibre cement tiles. Wall finishes consist of red brick with grey brick courses and grey and yellow brick headers to the front and north elevations. Windows are timber throughout, with PVC guttering apart from the pipe to the rear which is cast iron.