MacGuinness

Terraced four-bay three-storey house, built c. 1840, with shopfront added c. 1930 and separate entrance to upper floors. Pitched slate roof with rendered chimneystacks to either end (north and south), cast-iron rainwater goods and a cut stone eaves course. Painted roughcast rendered walls to upper floors with raised render block quoins to either end at first and second floor level. Square-headed window openings with moulded render surrounds/architraves having keystones over. One-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows with painted stone sills. Timber shopfront to ground floor with moulded cornice, fascia with hand painted shop sign and fluted pilasters with carved brackets over having ball finals. Square-headed openings with full-height fixed timber frame display windows having two cast-iron columns inside. Centrally placed recessed glazed timber double leaf door. Square-headed entrance to upper floors to the south end of the main façade with timber door and mirrored overlight. Road-fronted to the west side of Main Street, Longford Town.

This substantial mid nineteenth-century building retains its early form, character and a good deal of its original fabric. The render surrounds/architraves to the window openings were probably added during the late-nineteenth century and they help to give this building a strong presence in the streetscape. Of particular significance is the survival of a good quality traditional timber shopfront. This shopfront probably dates to around 1900 and is based on a simplification of the classical formula of pilasters supporting entablature over, which is used as the fascia for the shop name. Shopfronts of this type were once a typical feature of Irish towns and villages but are now becoming increasingly rare. This building and the later shopfront are a worthy addition to the built heritage of Longford Town.