Survey Data

Reg No

12504183


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Social


Original Use

School


Date

1915 - 1935


Coordinates

247071, 198468


Date Recorded

29/08/2008


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached seven-bay two-storey former Vocational Educational School in a stripped classical style, built c. 1925, three bays deep with attic storey and advanced middle entrance bay, later major extensions to the rear, also used as a Christian Brothers School, now vacant. Hipped slate roof, tall rendered stacks to end walls, cast-iron rainwater goods. Plain rendered walls, plain entablature and cornice, square-headed window openings plainly treated and square-headed entrance doorway with raised stucco surround. Nine paned casement windows to front and east, sixteen panes to Railway Street, double-leaf entrance doorway with plain lower panels and glazed upper with margin panes. Set back from the street at the corner of Church Street and Railway Street and within Maryborough Fort. The perimeter walls are massively thick and battered and may incorporate sections of the fort's walls. Rendered massive gate piers in Egyptian pylon form, bicycle sheds behind the walls.

Appraisal

A well detailed stripped classical school, distinguishing it from the Gothic detailed CBS school on the northern side of Church Street. It has a significant historical location within the fort and it is likely that the boundary wall incorporates sections of the fort's walls.The elevated site enhances its imposing presence at the corner of Bank Place, Church Street and Railway Street. The school is an important element in the social and educational history of Portlaoise and forms an integral part of the church and educational quarter of the town.