Alexander Strain (c. 1877 – 18 September 1943) was an Irish builder and property developer in Dublin in the early twentieth century. Early life and family Alexander Strain was born around 1877 in Markethill, County Armagh. His parents were builder Robert Douglas and Margaret Strain (née McFadden). He was their eldest son. Strain moved to Dublin in 1893, where he was employed at a timber dealership in Rathmines. He married Kathleen Parr in 1898, who was from Dublin. They had 4 daughters, Madge, Belinda, Caroline, and May. He was a Presbyterian, and an active member of the church in Dublin. He served as the chair of the board of governors of Drumcondra Hospital, supported the Marrowbone Lane fund, and was a governor of the Adelaide Hospital. Strain died suddenly at home in Cremore Park on 18 September 1943. One of Strain's daughters married George Linzell, who also built many houses in Dublin from the late 1920s. Career Soon after his moved to Dublin, Strain noticed the potential to build houses on the northern outskirts of Dublin. He borrowed capital to buy 10 acres in 1896 in the areas known as Daneswell and Cross Guns. He started construction on Iona Road, Drumcondra in 1904, building to a high quality with spacious homes that were in stark contrast to the existing local housing stock. He built houses on streets including Iona Road, Iona Drive, Lindsay Road, and Lindsay Crescent from 1904 to 1914. He and his family would live in the houses he built, leading to them moving at least 16 times around the Drumcondra and Glasnevin area. The housing market went into decline during World War I, and during the Easter Rising a number of the properties Strain owned on Lower Sackville Street appear to have been damaged. He began to build again from the mid-1920s, at locations including Hollybank Road, Cliftonville Road, and the Cremore estate. Cremore was named for the townland in County Armagh that his father was from. With his family, Strain settled in Cremore Park in 1930, where he built a number of houses for his family. The name 'Cremore' was taken from a Presbyterian Congregation near Poyntzpass in County Armagh, attended by a number of his relations, as the townland name in which the Meeting House is situated uses the alternative anglicisation of the Irish Croí Mór, 'Crewmore'. Strain developed a reputation for his customised houses