Description

Possibly Robert Ewan, Glasgow, dated 1862. Tall 2-storey with attic and basement, 5-bay house with gothic detailing, sited on ground falling to SW. Raised base, string and corbelled eaves courses. Squared rubble with contrasting ashlar dressings. Pointed- and shoulder-arched openings. Corbels. Stone mullions and chamfered reveals.

NE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: slightly set-back bays to centre with steps and flanking dwarf walls leading to moulded doorcase corbelled out to piended pitched roof with cross-detailed cornice, broad panelled timber with flanking lights over panelled aprons and 3-part fanlight set into depth of corbelling. Large windows in flanking bays, 2 further windows at 1st floor (positioned toward centre) breaking eaves into steeply-pitched pediment with carved cross in recessed panel, larger panel to centre with blind shield and entwined date '18' '62'. Ground floor of gabled bay to left with advanced wide-centre tripartite window and cross-carved panel giving way to narrower similarly advanced 1st floor with single shouldered window below cross-detailed cornice and piended swept roof. Lower projecting gable to right of centre with bipartite window at ground, single window above and glazed trefoil in gablehead, outer angles chamfered and corbelled. Variety of opening at basement.

SE ELEVATION: ground falling steeply to left. Door and flanking small windows to right at basement, window to each floor above that to 1st floor breaking eaves as above. Slightly advanced gable to left with full-height canted bay, basement with window to centre, blocked opening to right and squat buttress with battered cap to left, canted window to each floor above, that to ground flanked by slender capped buttresses in re-entrants.

SW (REAR) ELEVATION: 4-bay elevation with raised basement. 2 windows to each floor of set-back centre bays, those to basement small and square with additional tiny centre light, those to 1st floor breaking eaves as above. Advanced gable to right detailed as that to SE but with flanking squat buttresses at basement. Further gable to left with door to right at raised basement and blocked opening to left, 2 windows to ground and single window to 1st floor.

NW (MITCHELL STREET) ELEVATION: asymmetrically-fenestrated elevation with variety of elements including gabled porch with door on return to left and 1st floor window breaking eaves as above.

4-pane and plate glass glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows; coloured leaded Art Nouveau glazing to porch and fine coloured margined glazing to windows flanking door at NE. Graded grey slates, diamond-pattern to porch and canted windows. Tall grouped, banded and shouldered ashlar stacks some with carved detail. Stepped ashlar-coped skews with moulded and gablet skewputts, and decorative gablehead finials.

INTERIOR: decorative plasterwork cornicing and ceiling roses; panelled soffits with cross-detail; some dado rails and panelling. Vestibule with tiled mosaic-patterned floor; stairhall with top-lit dog-leg staircase with enclosed balusters, moulded timber handrail, newel posts with trefoil-detailed finials and pitched 10-light cupola. Principal ground floor room with deep decorative frieze incorporating monogrammed 'AR'. Further staircase with decorative cast-iron balusters.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: semicircular-coped rubble boundary walls with pyramidally-coped polygonal ashlar gatepiers and decorative ironwork gates (latter attached to square-plan gatepiers).

Statement of Interest

Property of Morrison's Academy. Robert Ewan (originally from Aberdeen) designed Crieff Hydro Hotel (1866-8), the now demolished Scottish Episcopalian Church (1875) and probably the Rectory, in Perth Road. Much of the fine detail evident at Croftweit can be found at The Old Rectory, particularly noticeable are the dormerheads, gablet skewputts and stack groupings. Croftweit became Morrison's Academy preparatory school in 1946, eventually converting to a boarding house in 1979 and subsequently used as an after school club with accommodation for school guests.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17837703

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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