Gentian House, Garth

Gentian House, located in Garth, is an Arts and Crafts house likely designed by James MacLaren around 1890. It was converted into a Field Studies Centre for the Garth Memorial Youth Hostel in 1951 and later became a private dwelling in 1988. A porch was added in the 1990s. This fine example of architecture features a tall single storey and two-storey L-plan layout, with a single storey wing that was converted from a former power house, preserving its spatial element. The exterior is finished in whitewashed harl with a contrasting sandstone base course, corbels, arrowslits, and crowsteps. The first floor jetties out, and there is a squared rubble forestair with a voussoired semicircular opening. The varying roof levels enhance the vertical emphasis of the asymmetrical crowstepped gables and the horizontal lines of the former power house wing.

The principal elevation faces southwest and features a prominent forestair leading to an advanced two-storey bay on the left, with outer angles corbelled to a square at the first floor. To the right, there is a lean-to porch in the re-entrant angle that includes a broad depressed arch entrance and a small square opening. A three-bay single storey section is set back on the right. The northwest elevation has been altered.

Inside, the simple interior retains some plain cornices, slate window ledges, and a metal stand-pipe from the former power house, along with an original timber fireplace in the first floor bedroom. The windows feature multi-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case with top-opening sections. The roof is covered with grey/green slates, and there are coped ashlar and harled stacks with clay cans. The crowstepped gables are ashlar-coped and include beak skewputts, slightly overhanging eaves, and plain bargeboarding.