8 Mary St, Rostrevor, Co.Down

8 Mary Street, Rostrevor, County Down

This is a Grade B2 listed house, designed by architect Frederick Darley. The building is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and is recorded in the 1835 valuation as a 'new' house of grade 'A', leased by the Ross estate to Reverend Benjamin Jacob, then curate of the parish of Kilbroney.

According to the 1835 valuation, the main house measured 39½ feet by 27 feet by 20 feet in height, with a return extension (along the present Greenpark Road) of 8 feet by 20½ feet by 20 feet. The building included a full-depth basement 7 feet high, a quarter of which served as a store, and a separate outbuilding to the west measuring 26 feet by 17½ feet by 14½ feet. Excluding the return and outbuilding, the present structure appears to be the same house. The building may form part of the residential development shown along this section of Mary Street on James Williamson's 1810 county map.

The 1861 valuation recorded approximately the same measurements—13 yards by 10 yards by 2½ storeys—and noted a 'good basement storey'. By this date the property was held by Hannah Maria Spencer. Subsequent tenants included Mrs. Hamilton (1866), Mary Grace Emerson (1871), Mary Kielty (1892), and John Elliott (by 1911). The 1901 census records Mrs. Kielty, a 57-year-old widow, occupying the building with her unmarried daughter (a domestic servant) and six 'visitors' (temporary residents), indicating the property was functioning as a lodging house at that time. Further tenants included Sarah Ryan (1920), Emily Mason (1924), Grace Walker (1929), James F. Sherwood (by 1936), Charles Hanlon (1953), Jonathan McCloy (1956), Laura Evans (1963), and Margaret Mayston (from 1969 until at least 1972).

The rear return was converted to separate properties sometime before 1979 and was replaced with the present terrace of nos. 1–6 Greenpark Road around 2000.

The listing includes the railings and steps. The property stands within a conservation area.