Hamilton House was built for Hans Henry Hamilton (1801-1875), the 5th son of Henry Hamilton of Ballymacoll, County Meath.
In October 1854, he took a lease from the Pembroke Estate on the site at the junction of Fitzwilliam Place and Lower Leeson Street.
Hans Henry appointed Dean and Woodward to design the house and Gilbert Cockburn and Sons were the appointed builders. Fitzwilliam Place, a Georgian Street, had remained incomplete at its southern end/Leeson Street end. Although Hamilton`s new house would remain briefly free-standing, it was the Pembroke Estate`s intention that an infill of terrace houses would be built in the Georgian style. This imposed limitations on the design of the building in terms of height, proportion, and materials.
The house is unusual in central Dublin in that it has a large garden at both the back and the side. The materials used for the house were those of the Georgian neighbourhood: yellow-brown stock bricks for the upper walls and limestone rubble for the basement. Red bricks alternated with the stock bricks in the chamfered segmental window arches and relieving arches. Red bricks were also used to make the triple – H monogram (Hamilton`s initials) on one if the two prominent chimney stacks.
Four years after Hamilton’s death in 1875, the house was sold to Christopher Palles, chief Baron of the Exchequer, and a devout Roman Catholic. Palles commissioned George Ashlin to design a chapel, which was added to the rear.
Ashlin used matching materials for his elevations, including chamfered window heads with red brick dressings on the lower ground floor. The windows of the chapel differ as they have stone surrounds. There is also a projecting oriel.
It was in Hamilton House in 1887 that Baron Palles presided at the meeting that led to the funding and rapid growth of the famous Clongowes Union an association of the foremost Jesuit school in the country.
When the Baron died, the property was assigned to Charles O`Connor, Master of the role’s assistant to the Lord Chancellor.
In 1927 the house was purchased by Mary Baroness Hemphill. The property was then passed to her son, Martyn who was the fourth Baron Hemphill. Unfortunately, he predeceased her, and the property was passed to Peter Patrick, the fifth Baron Hemphill, landlord until 1972.
One of his four heirs was the Solicitor General for Ireland under Queen Victoria. Also, one of Lord Hemphill`s relatives was responsible for the Palestrina Choir. These were the Martyn connects, his grandmother was Martyn, and number 28 Fitzwilliam Place was inherited along this line. The building was formally owned by The Martyn Investment Trust, and it was the city home of Edward Martyn, the Play Writer who co-founded the Abbey Theatre along with W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory.
