Gatsby House

Attached five-bay two-storey house with attic level, built c. 1880, having two-storey return and two-storey extension the rear (west). Formerly in use as a hotel and as a drapery shop, and now also in use as a holiday rental property. Pitched natural slate roof with smooth rendered chimneystacks with flat copings to the gable ends (north and south), some surviving sections of cast-iron rainwater goods, and with projecting rendered eaves course to the front elevation (east). Smooth rendered walls over projecting smooth rendered plinth, and with raised smooth rendered block quoins to the corners of the front elevation. Square-headed window openings with stone sills, one-over-one-pane timber sliding sash windows, and with stucco architraved surrounds to the ground floor openings. Central square-headed doorway to the front elevation (east) having timber panelled double-doors with bolection mouldings, stucco architraved surround, and with overlight with modern etched glass reading ‘GATSBY HOUSE’; flight of granite steps to entrance. Road-fronted on sloping site to the north of the centre of Ardara. Yard to the rear having single-storey outbuildings with modern thatched roofs.

An attractive, well-maintained and well-proportioned house, of late nineteenth-century appearance, that retains its early form and character. Its visual appeal and integrity are enhanced by the retention of salient fabric such as the natural slate roof and timber sliding sash windows. The front elevation is enlivened by the architraved surrounds to the ground floor openings and the parallel block quoins to the corners. This building is one of the more substantial traditional houses still surviving in Ardara, and is an integral element of the built heritage of Ardara. It was bought in c. 1903 by Con Kennedy, a native of Ardara who emigrated to the United States in the 1880s. He returned c. 1902 and established a drapery here. It was apparently formerly in use as a hotel.