User:Financefactz/sandbox/Tyrone House, Dublin

Tyrone House is a Georgian mansion townhouse built for Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone in 1740. It was constructed on lands bordering Marlborough Street (formerly Tyrone Street) in what was to become a fashionable part of North Dublin city off Sackville Street (Dublin). It was the first substantial aristocratic house built on the North side of Dublin city.

The house was situated close to Marlborough Bowling Green and Pleasure Gardens, which was then a fashionable enclave where the wealthy elite could socialize. It was also situated close to other landmarks of Georgian Dublin including the newly built Custom House and dock at Beresford Place facing the quay.

History
The earl died at the house in 1763 and the house was left to his son, styled the marquess of Waterford in 1789. As a result the house was often called Waterford House on maps during that period.

Nearby Beresford Place was later named in honour of the first earl's grandson, John Claudius Beresford.

In 1834 the house and five adjoining acres were sold for £7,000 to the National Education Commissioners. The house later became part of the Department of Education's campus which also encompasses the original model school as well as a facsimile of the altered version of Tyrone House, both of which were designed by Jacob Owen a few years after the purchase.

Tyrone Ghost Story
A well-known ghost story relates to the house concerning the appearance of Lord Tyrone as a ghost to prove the existence of life after death.

Design and construction
The house was built in 1740 to a design by Richard Cassels and was said to be his first stone-fronted free-standing house in Dublin. Later, the house was altered by Jacob Owen in 1835 adding a prostyle tetrastyle granite portico and removing the central front venetian window at first floor while leaving much of the house unchanged. The house is mainly faced in granite ashlar with calp ashlar walls at basement level while the house still features some of its original portland stone sills.

The elaborate interior stucco work is generally attributed to the Lafranchini brothers.

The house was surrounded by a high wall but these were replaced with the present iron railings when the house was developed by the Department of Education in 1836.