building misc

Detached three-bay two-storey medical officer's house, extant 1897, on an L-shaped plan with four-bay two-storey side (west) elevation. Reroofed. Replacement pitched artificial slate roof on an L-shaped plan with ridge tiles terminating in cement rendered chimney stacks having concrete capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta octagonal or tapered pots, and uPVC rainwater goods on box eaves. Rendered walls (ground floor) bellcast over rendered plinth; roughcast surface finish (first floor) with rendered strips to corners supporting rendered band to eaves. Square-headed central door opening with concrete step threshold, and rendered "bas-relief" surround framing replacement glazed timber panelled door. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills[?], and concealed dressings framing two-over-two timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Interior including (ground floor): central entrance hall retaining carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors; and carved timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Street fronted on a corner site with concrete footpath to front.

A house representing an integral component of the later nineteenth-century built heritage of Béal and Mhuirthead [Belmullet] with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a featureless doorcase; and the uniform proportions of the openings on each floor. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a house having historic connections with a succession of medical officers assigned to the Belmullet District Poor Law Union including Dr. Martin Staunton Lavan MD (b. 1867), 'Physician [and] Surgeon Royal College of Surgeons' (NA 1901); and Dr. Patrick J. MacHale LMRCPSI (b. 1871), 'Medical Practitioner [and] Coroner' (NA 1911).