Public Library And Art Gallery, King Street, Castle Douglas

George Washington Browne, 1902-4 with later additions and Art Gallery, 1938. Single storey and attic, roughly L-plan Jacobean library with mid-20th century flat-roofed wing extending to rear, and 1938 Art Gallery to SE (side). Original building gabled; round stair turret in re-entrant angle with ogee-shaped dome; large mullioned and transomed window to NW gable; shouldered stack to SE. Rake-jointed, tooled, snecked red sandstone with ashlar dressings. Roll-moulded eaves course to original building; string course and deep billeted eaves course to tower. Predominantly bipartite mullioned windows with roll-moulded ashlar margins; chamfered window margins to mid 20th century extension.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 2-bay gable to right; 2-leaf timber panelled door to left bay in stop-chamfered, roll-moulded architrave; flanking bipartite windows. 4-light mullioned window to right bay; bipartite windows to attic. Slightly recessed wing to left with tripartite window. 3-stage stair tower in re-entrant angle with timber panelled door in chamfered architrave and 2 narrow windows in round-arched surrounds at 2nd stage. 1938 Art Gallery to outer right with Art Deco style pediment and bronze plaque in roll-moulded surround (see Notes for inscription).

NW (STREET) ELEVATION: gable end with large 5-light transomed and mullioned window with round-arched lights and billeted moulding above.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: wing to right with 2 bipartite windows. 3-bay gable to left with advanded flat-roofed extension at ground. Art Gallery recessed to outer left.

Leaded casements; some later timber casements with hopper openings to upper sections. Shouldered corniced stack. Ashlar-coped skews. Graded grey slate. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: inner lobby with half-glazed timber panelled door, and glazed timber screen with leaded lights. Ribbed ceiling to main reading room; remains of pilastered timber partition with cornice. Timber spiral staircase in tower.

BOUNDARY WALL AND RAILINGS: rectangular panelled gatepiers with tall, corniced pyramidal caps. Random rubble boundary wall with ashlar coping and cast-iron railings. 2-leaf cast-iron gates.