St Joseph‘s Missionary College (Former): Dormitory Building, Kilbirnie Road, Lochwinnoch

8-bay, 3-storey, rectangular-plan hospital ward block and plain Art-Deco style. Prominent entrance and stair tower with long multi-paned window; 1st and 2nd storeys recessed. Coursed red sandstone rubble with ashlar margins; coursed polished red sandstone ashlar at advanced ground floor level. Large, multi-paned metal casement windows. Bonded brick wall to far left adjoining house at ground floor.

A good example of an early 19th century Tudor mansion featuring prominent, multiple diamond shafted, coped chimney stacks. The layout and detailing of the 19th century house is relatively unaltered, since later additions have not compromised any of the original fabric of the house which, although linked, remains separate. Known originally as Barr House, St Joseph's was built by David King in 1796 for James Adam, who sold it in 1820 to William Macdowall, 20th of Garthland and one time Provost of Glasgow. William had completed the sale of ancestral lands of Garthland in Wigtonshire in 1811. He renamed the building Garpel, and then Gathland, extending it northwards (1820-1935). Henry Macdowall, 26th of Garthland, sold the building to the Mill Hill Foreign Missionary Society at which time it became the St Joseph's College for Missionaries (1935-1985), and then St Joseph's Nursing Home (1985-2004). Thomas Cordiner (1902-1965) completed a number of Roman Catholic church commissions in Glasgow later in his career including the Immaculate Heart of Mary, St Margaret Mary's RC Church and Presbytery and St Thomas the Apostle (all listed category B). He was elected FRIBA on 11 January 1949. John Mortimer (1912-1961) collaborated with Cordiner on a similar project at the Convent of the Good Shepard, Bishopton, 1952. (Historic Scotland)

January 2005: Local planners brings the building to the attention of the Buildings at Risk Service. The building closed as a seminary in 1985 and was latterly used as a nursing home. This too closed in 2004 and the site is under offer to Guardian Health Care of Wolverhampton. Planners are concerned that the building is unlisted and outwith a conservation area, and would therefore have no protection if demolition was sought.

October 2009: Planning permission and listed building consent approved in April 2008 for conversion of existing building to form 30 flats and selective demolition of outbuildings, upgrading of access roads, car parking and associated landscaping. No works appear to have commenced on site yet.

5 April 2012: Local planners advise owner of the building is understood to be Guardian Care (UK) Limited.

10 July 2012: External inspection finds no significant change from the previous site visit, but the site is slightly more overgrown.

19 August 2014: External inspection finds the building remains in much the same condition as seen previously.

20 July 2020: A member of the public notes parts of the most recently constructed section of the building remains, but has been vandalised and suffered fire damage.

29 January 2021: Listed Building Consent is being sought for demolition of the C listed dormitory block, Ref: 20/0813/LB.

6 September 2023: Listed Building Consent (20/0813/LB) for demolition of C listed dormitory block was conditionally granted 18/01/2022.

Local planner advises that all windows have been removed or boarded up. There is damage to the roof and cracks in brickwork. Building at the side has also been demolished.