Public Library And Art Gallery, King Street, Castle Douglas

The Public Library and Art Gallery, located on King Street in Castle Douglas, was designed by George Washington Browne and built between 1902 and 1904. A further Art Gallery wing was added in 1938, and a flat-roofed extension was built later in the 20th century. The original building is a roughly L-shaped, single-storey structure with an attic, constructed in a Jacobean style. A prominent feature is the round stair turret located in the re-entrant angle, topped with an ogee-shaped dome.

The building is faced in tooled, snecked red sandstone with contrasting ashlar dressings. The original section has a roll-moulded eaves course, while the tower has a string course and deep, billeted eaves. The windows are predominantly bipartite, with roll-moulded ashlar margins; the mid-20th century extension has chamfered window margins. The NW gable features a large, transomed and mullioned window. A shouldered corniced stack is located on the SE side.

The principal (SW) elevation has a gabled section to the right, with a two-leaf timber panelled door set within a stop-chamfered, roll-moulded architrave in the left bay. Bipartite windows flank the door. A four-light mullioned window is to the right, and bipartite windows illuminate the attic. A slightly recessed wing to the left has a tripartite window. The stair tower, in the re-entrant angle, has a timber panelled door within a chamfered architrave and two narrow windows in round-arched surrounds at the second stage. The 1938 Art Gallery, located to the outer right, exhibits an Art Deco style pediment and a bronze plaque set within a roll-moulded surround.

The NW (street) elevation showcases a gable end with a large, five-light transomed and mullioned window with round-arched lights and billeted moulding above. The NE (rear) elevation includes a wing with two bipartite windows and a three-bay gable with an advanced, flat-roofed extension at ground level. The Art Gallery is recessed to the outer left.

The windows are primarily leaded casements, with some later timber casements featuring hopper openings in the upper sections. The roof is covered in graded grey slate, and cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted.

Inside, the inner lobby has a half-glazed timber panelled door and a glazed timber screen with leaded lights. The main reading room retains a ribbed ceiling and remnants of a pilastered timber partition with a cornice. A timber spiral staircase is located within the tower.

The boundary is marked by rectangular panelled gatepiers with tall, corniced pyramidal caps, a random rubble boundary wall with ashlar coping and cast-iron railings, and two-leaf cast-iron gates.