Henty House

581 Nepean Highway, Seaford

History
Built: 1953
Arthur Frederick Henty of Portland Lodge, (1 Plummer Avenue) Frankston, was the owner of Lot 1 on LP.89711 in the late 1940s.1 On his death in the early 1950s, ownership of the property passed to Mrs. May Henty.2 Mrs. Henty had a timber-clad house, designed by Roy Grounds, built on the property by local builder, Norman Echberg.3 By 1958-59 Robert Brennan, a company director, had purchased Henty House.4 Robert and Edna Brennan owned and occupied the property until after 1967.5

Description
Cross-Section Magazine (University of Melbourne, Dept. of Architecture) noted this house in its May 1953:

'Last month at Frankston, Victoria, a 45' diameter house was finished (Roy Grounds, arch't; Norman Echberg, bldr.); at Toorak, a 48' square house with 26' diam. Court was started (Roy Grounds, arch't; Norman Echberg, bldr.)'

Ground's fixation with plan geometry was not his alone, Boyd and McIntyre among others used simple geometric outlines to promote planning success.

The Henty house was round to suit an all-round sea view, part of its perimeter being open (as balcony) and part closed (as rooms).6 Vertical boarding, amber window-walls, expressed timber rafters and pipe columns were the same elements being used by Chancellor & Patrick at the time, but in a decidedly different form. The roof eaves were angled to shield from the summer sun and admit winter sun and, at the roof's centre to avoid exposed guttering (the downpipe runs down the back of the fireplace – present owners). Similarly all of the service pipes were concealed in the wall cavity.

In the same year, but in Tasmania, architect J.H. Esmond Dorney had completed a 24 feet diameter 'glass cylinder' over an old gun pit with far less finesse.7

External Integrity
Generally original, except for the addition of a new, visually unrelated house in the former front yard of the house, obscuring the view to it.

Context
Close to the first Henty house, the two are of historical interest as the choice of the same family client and designer in markedly different periods. It is otherwise unrelated to nearby housing but reflects the large number of post-war innovative designs built along the coast in the city.

Significance – Study Grading C
Architecturally, the house is one of the best known examples (nationally) of the post-War Melbourne Modernist's passion for simple but functional solid geometry. In this case the design was ideally tailored to its site, in terms of views and sun, and remains externally unaltered as an example of the work of Roy Grounds whose name became nationally well-known for a totally different scale of project: of National and State importance.