Lisnarran, 4 Greenpark Road, Rostrevor, Co.Down

This site is shown undeveloped on the OS map of 1834, with the present structure in place on that of 1859. In the valuation book of c.1861 the building is described as ‘very new’ house in ‘the Elizabethan style and elegantly finished’, measuring 16yds x 9 x 2[storeys], with a ‘kitchen’ of 6yds 1ft x 10 (the latter seemingly within a ‘basement under stable’) with the stable itself measuring 6yds 1ft x 10 x 2. The occupant at the time of this valuation was Mary Squires, who was leasing the property from Thomas Emerson, who at that point was the local postmaster, managing the post office in nearby Mary Street (see HB16/06/052A). The valuers state that at that juncture the property had been leased ‘for 5 years which are all nearly expired’, which would indicate that it was constructed before c.1856. Its Tudoresque design suggests it way have been built around 1840-45, although the valuers’ phrase ‘very new’ would appear to indicate a later date. The identity of the architect is not known. A ‘Major Moore’ is recorded as the tenant in 1872, by which time the property had taken on the name ‘Lisna-arran’. A letting advertisement of May 1872 states that the house contained ‘two sitting and six bedrooms, dressing rooms etc etc.’, whilst to the rear and north there were ‘fruit and pleasure gardens and [a] croquet ground…also, stabling and a coach house.’ Major Moore was succeeded by Oliver H. [?Minchin] in 1873, followed by Charlotte Leslie in 1874, Anne [?Pence] in 1894 and John Francis Maxwell in 1898. In the 1901 census the Co. Limerick-born 57yr-old Mr Maxwell (a civil engineer), is noted as occupying the house with his wife, Mary Matilda Maxwell, his sister, Margaret Ann Maxwell, and two domestic servants, with the building itself a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 15 rooms in use. Adeline F. Forde took up the lease in 1905, Mrs. Mary Constance Murray in 1909, with Eleanor Gostling named as a joint tenant in 1923. Mrs. Murray died in 1933 and Ms Gostling is named as the sole resident in 1936. The following year Richard and Elizabeth Kennedy are listed as occupants, followed by Alexander Homes Hardy in 1939, Jean Hardy in 1945 and Philip G. Fay in 1963. Mr Fay appears to have been still living here in 1972. Sometime before 1989 the property was converted to a nursing home and the grounds to the rear were subsequently developed for housing with additional apartment blocks now abutting the north and south sides of the building. References - Primary sources 1 OS map, Co. Down sheet 54 - 1834, 1860, 1902, 1919. 1950; sheet 277 - 1979 2 PRONI VAL2B/3/61C (1861) 3 PRONI VAL12B/19/21A-F (1865-1929) 4 ‘Northern Whig - 4 May 1872, p.1 5 ‘Newry Telegraph’ - 17 November 1892, p.2 6 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie [Accessed 13.11.2021] 7 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ - 16 March 1934, p.1 8 PRONI VAL3C/23 - 1936-57 9 PRONI VAL4B/3/81 - 1956-72 10 ‘Sunday Life’ - 26 February 1989, p.30; 28 March 1999, p.103