Reg No
31212046
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Westport Parochial School
Original Use
School
Historical Use
Store/warehouse
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1820 - 1825
Coordinates
99963, 284527
Date Recorded
10/08/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Detached two-bay (seven-bay deep) two-storey gable-fronted parochial school, built 1824, on a rectangular plan. Vacated, 1962. Sold, 1965. In alternative use, 1976. In alternative use, 1986. Renovated to accommodate alternative use. Pitched (gable-fronted) slate roof with roll moulded clay ridge tiles, lead-covered concrete coping to gables, and replacement plastic rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on cut-limestone eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Part repointed tuck pointed limestone ashlar wall on cut-limestone plinth with dragged cut-limestone "tondi" to gable centred on inscribed cut-limestone plaque; rendered, ruled and lined surface finish (remainder) with bull nose-detailed panelled quoins to ends. Pair of segmental-headed blind openings (ground floor) with limestone ashlar voussoirs. Square-headed window openings with sills not visible, and moulded surrounds framing two-over-two timber sash windows. Street fronted with concrete brick cobbled footpath to front.
A school 'erected through the zeal of the Most Reverend Oliver Kelly DD [1777-1834]' representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of Westport with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form; the Classically-detailed frontispiece demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings on each floor with those openings showing sleek "stucco" refinements.