Houston House

675 Nepean Highway, Frankston

History
Architects, Chancellor and Patrick, designed a house for Ray Houston of South Melbourne, on land he owned at 675 Nepean Highway in 1959.1 In 1978 he commissioned Frankston Builders, Maile and Bennett, to build a 27 square metre addition to the residence at an estimated cost of $12,000.2 Ray Houston, a director, owned an occupied the property with Vera Houston until after 1978.3

Description
(See also 1 Gulls Way)
Of all the Chancellor & Patrick Wright/Griffin – influenced designs, this is one of the most successful and the most obvious.

Built from Colortone concrete masonry (white cement joints) the house has the shallow extended gable rooflines, exposed outrigger roof purlins and horizontal boarding to balconies of their earlier houses. Generous undercroft space accentuates the 'floating' appearance of the upper level, while the continuous strip windows on that level lend the same sensation of the roof. The later addition appears to be the single- storey skillion built facing Ithaca Road and matched in general form and materials, but not in conceptual detail.

External Integrity
Given the later addition, generally original.

Context
Sited at a prominent corner, on a busy road, and among contemporary buy visually unrelated detached housing.

Significance – Study Grading B
Architecturally, this is one of the best of the two-story Chancellor and Patrick house designs and is prominently sited.

Historically, the house is significant as a superior example of the Modernist buildings which distinguished 1950s Frankston; of regional importance.