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History

The area of St Stephens Green takes it’s name from the Leper house of St Stephen which was founded c. 1192. Close to the house was an area of green space, this contained 60 acres of common pasture for citizens who dwelt on the south side of the Liffey. 
 
In 1664 Dublin Corporation, inspired by development elsewhere in the city laid out St. Stephens Green, the largest and the earliest of the residential squares. There were 96 freehold plots, each with a frontage of 60ft and depths of up to 200ft, and they were laid out around the green. This set a standard for building in the rest of the city. By the time of the publication of Bernard de Gomme’s map in 1673, houses had begun to be laid out on the north and west sides of the green.
 
In 1664 to lease a plot from the corporation you had to pay 1 penny per square foot on the north, east and west side. For the south side plots you had to pay one halfpenny per plot. The leases specified that the houses should be made from brick, stone or timber and be at least two stories high besides the cellar. All owners of plots were required to contribute to the paving and wall for the green and were obliged to plant 6 sycamore trees near the wall and see that they did not die for at least 3 years.
 
In 1669 a wall was erected around the green, and as the land was very swampy a ditch was dug inside the wall to carry off the water. Because of the condition of the land, snipe were frequently spotted here and were shot in the green until the early nineteenth century. In 1670 the Corporation ordered that the rents and profits they received were to be given to the Blue Coat School.
 
Houses were not originally known by numbers as these did not seem to be in common usage until the mid-1770s. The sides of the square were filled in gradually, so that houses were known instead by their occupants.
 
It was in the eighteenth century that building really took off around the green. The style of the houses built were all remarkably similar, as can be seen today. They generally consisted of plain unadorned facades, a type that has been described as ‘barn-like.’ Windows were of a standard size, and there is quite a lot of brick to window evident. Some of them have more decorative hall level floors. The plainness of the brick heightens the decorative effect of the door-cases and fanlights, some of which are extremely exuberant, and it also emphasises the beautiful interiors.
 
The different sides of the green were all given different names. The south side was known as Leesons Walk, the East side as Monks Walk, the West Side as French Walk because of the many Huguenot families living there, and the North Side as Beaux Walk which was considered to be similar to the Mall in St. James’s Park, London for its elegance and taste. On Beaux Walk the fashionable would take the air to see and be seen.
 
Visitors to Dublin generally wrote favourably of the green and the houses but criticised the interior ditch as being most unhealthy. By the late eighteenth century it was described as being full of weeds and having dead cats and dogs in it. The park was also being used as a football pitch so in 1814 an Act of Parliament was passed for the improvement of Stephens Green which erected railings around the green, and allowed no-one but residents of the houses, or subscribers into the green. You had to be approved as a subscriber and pay one guinea a year. Running, leaping or any other acts that might injure the ground, shrubs and plants were banned as were dogs. You also had to be careful to behave correctly and not use offensive language.
 
In 1877 the Green was re-opened to the public and laid out as gardens, due to the initiative of Arthur Guinness, Lord Ardilaun, of whom there is a statue in the green.
 
No. 9 St. Stephens Green was plot No. 28, and the earliest lessee of this plot was Alderman Thomas Waterhouse. In 1729 Joseph Leeson, father of the 1st Earl of Milltown leased the plot, but doesn’t appear to have ever lived here. The Earl of Milltown’s town house is now just a few doors down, and is the Kildare Street and University Club. So this area seems to have been a popular location for clubs.
 
The house is marked on John Rocque’s 1756 map of Dublin, which is the same year the house was built. Around this time to lease land on the south side of Stephens Green could cost as little as 2l. 10s. p.a., and No. 85 on the South side of the Green (now Newman House) was available for £13 6s. In 1758 Rev. Cutts Harman, Dean of Waterford is listed as the occupant. In June 1754 an ad appeared in George Faulkner’s Dublin Journal for a house to let or the interest of the lease to be sold on the North side of Stephens Green which was ‘lately inhabited by the Rev. Mr. Harman.’ This seems likely to be Cutts Harman, which would suggest that either he lived in another house initially on this side of the Green, or there was an earlier house here that he lived in, but gave up for a while.
 
He married Bridget, daughter of George Gore, Justice of the Common Pleas and she died here in 1762. They had no children. Dean Harman owned extensive lands, including those in Longford and around Kildare. His sister Anne was the second wife of Sir Laurence Parsons of Birr. Harman willed his estate to their son Laurence Harman Parsons who took the surname Harman so became Laurence Harman Harman. The estate was reputedly worth £8000 per annum and £50,000 in cash. In 1772 Laurence married Jane, the daughter of Sir Edward King, 1st Earl Kingston. Laurence was an MP for Longford between 1775 and 1792, and lived here from Harman’s death in 1784 until his own in 1807. He was created Baron Oxmantown in 1792, Viscount Oxmantown in 1795 and 1st Earl Rosse in 1806.
 
1812 Peter La Touche of Bellevue is listed as the occupant, in 1831 it is Robert La Touche of Harristown, and for a short while after that it appears to have been a boarding house. It is said that Sir Walter Scott’s son lived here while quartered in Dublin with his regiment, and that Sir Walter Scott visited him, and was surprised at the elegance of the surroundings.
 
In 1839 the house was taken by the Union club, and in 1840 the club was dissolved and reconstituted under the name the St. Stephens Green Club.
 
In 1841 the wall dividing the 2 front rooms on the ground floor, now the dining room, was removed, along with the original cornice and frieze. A Victorian one was added. In 1844 an extension with 9 additional rooms was built, and in 1854 the 2 front 1st floor rooms were joined to create a reading room.
 
The house is essentially an 18th century house with a later Italianate façade. The earlier house is entirely obscured by a cement rendered and channelled façade with big pedimented plate glass windows and a mansard roof added c. 1901-2. The brick façade had probably been rendered by 1880, but the ornaments date from around 1901.
 
It is unique among Dublin townhouses of the period as it is entered through a porte cochere or carriage arch. This detail can be seen in a drawing by Joseph Jarratt who was active in Dublin in the 1750s. Although this drawing shows a four bay house and No. 9 has 5 bays the design of the drawing is very similar to this house. There is a photograph dating to the 1880s which shows the porte cochere as it was designed by Jarratt, but it was re-faced subsequently and is closed at the inner end by an office. This is a very unusual entrance to a house, but Dean Harman appears to have had unusual taste in architecture as his house in Ballymahon, Longford was octagonal.
 
In regards to the interior decoration, Filippo Lafranchini carried out the stucco here in the late 1750s. He was one of 3 brothers who all worked in stucco, the others were Paolo and Pietro-Natale. They were born in the Italian speaking Swiss Canton of Ticino. Paolo and Filippo became the dominant force in Irish stuccowork, and worked in many houses including No. 85 St. Stephens Green, Carton and Castletown in Co. Kildare.
 
On the ground floor, the dining room has a ceiling showing the triumph of Bacchus, drawn in a chariot by 10 inebriated putti. It is quite difficult to make out Bacchus as he is the same size as the putti in this work. It is bordered by scrolls, foliate ornaments and masks with acanthus hair. It is a very fitting ceiling to have in a dining room with its references to Bacchus, the God of Wine. The chimney piece is in veined marble terminating in two scrolls over the centre of the mantel.
 
Upstairs in the reading room, which would have been the Saloon, there is a very decorative ceiling. In the centre is Fortitude, one of the four cardinal virtues signifying courage, endurance and strength. Fortitude is generally depicted as female, so she resembles Minerva, who was the female goddess of war and wisdom. She is represented as a warrior, wearing a helmet, sometimes in armour, and holding a shield, spear or sword. Some of her attributes are derived from the Bible and myth. For example, the pillar, sometimes broken, comes from the story of Samson, and it is often depicted as being carried by putti or winged infants.
 
She is often depicted with a club and a lions skin which are taken from Hercules, the lion a common symbol of courage, and sometimes she is shown as fighting a lion. The actual figure of fortitude is taken from an engraving of a painting by the artist Simon Vouet in the Salon de Mars in Versailles.
 
Surrounding Fortitude are the Elements and the Seasons on the cardinal and diagonal axes. They can be recognised by their attributes, for example Water is shown with an urn, and Winter is wrapping up against the cold, and in front of a fire. Birds are also depicted, a motif that was to become very popular with Dublin stuccadores.
 
The Ladies room has a relief showing ‘Grammar’ over the fireplace. The other panels are empty which would suggest that they were designed to be completed at a later date. The decorative scheme, if finished, would have been very similar to that of the Apollo Room in No. 85 St. Stephens Green which also has large panels on the walls, and smaller overdoor panels.
 
The decoration on the staircase is in the grand baroque style with cartouches, which seem a little old fashioned for the mid-eighteenth century, and this shows how Dublin plasterwork was a mixture of styles. The cartouches contain figurative scenes with landscape backgrounds, showing the gods. The east wall shows Mercury, the west Minerva and the South Juno and Antigone. Juno is turning Antigone into a Stork because Zeus was giving her a little too much attention.
 
The staircase handrail terminates in a massive whorl supported by 17 balusters. The design of the staircase is similar to that of Tyrone House and No.85 St Stephens Green. The Stair hall has the original wainscoting, stone chimney piece and lugged doorway surrounds, so called because they resemble ears.