St Dominic's

Semi-detached pair of double-pile two-bay two-storey houses over raised basements, built c.1905, having slightly lower recessed gable-fronted box-bay to side elevations, canted-bay windows to ground floor and basement of inner bays to front (west) elevation, and lower two-storey returns over basement to rear. Now partly in use as apartments. Pitched natural slate roofs to front pile and to box-bay windows, hipped natural slate roofs to rear pile and to returns, red brick chimneystacks with cornices and clay pots, clay ridge tiles with scrolled finials, moulded brick eaves courses, decorative terracotta tiles to box-bay gables, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond, with moulded red brick stringcourse forming cornice to parapets to canted-bay windows, and moulded render plinth course over lined-and-ruled rendered walls to basement. Square-headed window openings with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash and some replacement windows, cut granite sills, with continuous sills to bay windows. Round-headed deeply recessed porch openings, with moulded red brick surrounds having terracotta keystones, square-headed inner door openings with timber panelled door, plain overlights and leaded sidelights, terrazzo floors, decorative tiles to side walls, and plaster cornices to ceilings. Granite thresholds and flights of granite steps with wrought-iron railings on rendered retaining walls. Set in own grounds with rubble stone boundary walls and having gardens and carparking to front and rear. Wrought-iron pedestrian gate to No.54, having square-plan red brick piers with pointed capstones, and single pier to No.52 lacking gates.

This pair was built following the lease of the lands in 1898 by Col. Edward Vernon to Dominic Dolan. The lease specified that Dolan was to build three pairs of two-storey over basement villas to the north of 'an intended new road', but it appears from physical similarities that all four pairs had the same builder. This type of speculative development was increasingly popular in Clontarf at the turn of the twentieth century, with numerous terraces and groups of houses built to accommodate the middle classes and well-to-do. The use of bay windows and recessed porches adds depth and interest to the elevations, while the use of red brick over render walls, and subtle brick embellishments, further enliven the facades. Developments in brick-making technology at the time ensured an affordable supply of well made bricks for decorative effects such as these. The entrances are particularly finely detailed, with glazed tiled walls, terrazzo floors, and leaded sidelights showing evidence of skilled craftsmanship.