Join the Western Alliance at Cork's Western Road 'American houses'

Irish Examiner

13-06-2025

IRISH homes of a century and more ago had many parallels to those of our nearest and once colonialist neighbour Britain, impacting on the designs of little and large, in countryside estates, Georgian and Victorian piles, city pads, terraces, and suburban spreads and sprawls.
Six of the best
But, as the State found its feet, other nationalities from Germany, France, and international movements got a look in too, in industrial, commercial and residential construction: witness the affection still held nearly a century on for Cork City's 'American houses,' of which there's only half a dozen at Annaville, near UCC on the city's Western Road.
One of Cork city's much loved 'American houses' will test the Western (Road) Alliance
American architecture got more than occasional look-ins in Cork, witness the likes of Neil Hegarty's Dundanion Court in Blackrock; Christ the King Church at Turners Cross; the Ford factory on the Marina, or the industrial output of the likes of local city architect Frank Murphy at the North Mall. Then, even closer to UCC and the Mardyke, at Annaville, as American as Mom and apple pie.
Stateside meets Leeside
Dating to the interwar period, these colonial revival, red-brick, over semi-basement houses, with white pillared porches, dormer attics with quarter lune windows, side sun rooms (and trellised balconies above accessed off the principal bedroom,) are credited to Boston architect Harry Morton Ramsay, and to wealthy Cork emigrant Cornelius Buckley who developed furniture stores on the US east coast.
Buckley later returned to Cork to build a Lee valley summer house, Valley View along with these six, speculative and wholly 'modern' detacheds, with varied design changes in three sets of two, across facing rows in a gated cul de sac, with an ornate gated entrance to the Western Road, and with pedestrian gates to the Mardyke facing Fitzgerald Park.
Entrance to the six 'American houses' is on Cork's Western Road
Built in the late 1920s, with construction overseen by local architect Chillingworth and Levie, they had much of their build materials shipped over from the United States, including oak flooring, lighting and electrical fixtures; glass, brass and bronze door furniture, hinges, and Bakelite kitchen trims, coloured bathroom suites, the lot, all before the time of shipping containers.
Pure Cork, tho'
Timing, however, was rotten: started after 1926, they completed just after the Wall Street Crash and sales were slow.
Buckley allowed various family members to live in them until sales picked up: they went on to garner increasing success, and recognition up to the present date, with only a few changing hands over the last 25 years.
The last appears to be No 6, making €450,000 in 2019: now it's the turn of No 3 Annaville, a property prize if ever there was one for reasons from location to rarity, quality, charm and, yes, bragging rights, albeit on a sub-Trumpian scale.
Main bedroom at 3 Annaville has balcony/terrace access
No 3 has been the family home of the O'Leary clan since 1963, says Gerald O'Leary, who was aged three when his parents, Denis and Doreen O'Leary had the chops and chutzpah to buy it for a family of four, later to swell to six children during their long tenure here.
As American as Mom and apple pie
That's only now about to come to an end after the passing of Doreen in November last, a number of years after her husband Denis O'Leary, known to generations as a city pharmacist on Cork's Grand Parade.
Denis had come from the Cork countryside, Doreen came from the Ballinlough Road and they all loved it here, says Gerald, all appreciating it for work, city, shops, schools and college convenience, whilst Fitzgerald Park was literally a stone's throw, or a ball hop, away across the leafy Mardyke. Even today, the vastly upgraded children's play area in the city's beloved public riverside park is a superb amenity, within child-chatter and laughter earshot from the rooms on the left hand side of No 3.
Three-storey and six bedroomed, with c 2,200 sq ft on c 0.1 of an acre within the overall gated 0.75 acre Annaville niche enclave, it's been a very well kept family home, albeit largely unchanged over many decades, with the main alteration having been opening up three small back kitchen/service/pantry rooms into one where there's now a lurid yellow kitchen: the family also added a ground floor upgraded bathroom where previously Annaville homes had a ground floor WCs for a maid.
Maids? Domestic staff (even in almost 'normal' size family homes) were still a feature up to the mid 1900s in middle class Cork.
On the button? A maid could be summoned via a floor button under the dining table
No 3 has a great reminder of those days, with a brass plate in the dining room under the good table, left over from a floor bell button, when the hostess of the house could summon 'the help' from the kitchen to serve the next course(s), and remove the dirty dishes, at the tap of a toe, without even an audible click of a finger, or a shift in the hostess's seat (nope, didn't work in O'Leary family times, we're told of this tiny museum/other era domestic timepiece.)
Fine fireplace in main living room
Selling to 21st century buyers and guiding at €895,000 is Michael O'Donovan of Savills who reckons home hunters (with or without staff) 'will be struck by the sense of exclusivity and the architectural distinction of this unique collection of homes: it's a remarkable property, with a rare opportunity to acquire a piece of Cork's residential heritage.'
Parking and garage too
He highlights the integrity, the 'rich period charm and a showcase of imported American craftsmanship,' including American oak, pine and mahogany staircase, and a layout that today will still suit 'modern' family life, with a dining room off the kitchen, a large double aspect living room and optional dual access points to a bright southern gable sunroom.
Above are four bedrooms, one with shower en suite and walk-in robe — a sort of provision not commonplace in most 'new' Irish homes until the 1980s or '90s — as well as a door to the terrace above the sun room, with perimeter low railings for those who'd find themselves having a sit-out use here.
All bedrooms have built-in robes (again, novel at the time, almost a century ago), plus main bathroom. A second, almost-concealed staircase behind a door on the landing leads to two attic level bedrooms, with peculiar centre store area with dormer window (yet hard to access,) eaves storage and lovely side hinged gable windows.
No 3 is set to the rear of Annaville and so has its own pedestrian gate straight to the Mardyke where Fitzgerald Park, UCC sports arena, Sunday's Well Tennis Club and Cork Cricket Club all line out for sporting attention: the enclave has a more communal gate too, secure, with overhead lamp on an ornate, green-painted trellis, a smaller version of the more imposing gates on Western Road which used to face the long-departed Western Star and with the Bon Secours on the southern horizon.
VERDICT: There's been quite the rash of €1m+plus new and older home sales in the past year or two in Cork western suburbs, largely driven by a robust economy and mid and high level medical hospital/consultant post appointments. A handful of high-profile Leeside arrivals are due in the €1.5m/€2m price bracket in coming weeks too, to test the market's upper end mettle. A number of the recent sales make the €895k 3 Annaville look like a good buy.
Time to Make Annaville Great Again?