Struan McMahon's Road, Frankston

(Monash University – Peninsula Campus)

History
The Monash Campus at Frankston contains a large brick house called Struan. The land on which Struan stands is first mentioned in the 1896 – 97Frankston rate books as being 29 acres of Crown Allotment 6C and owned by Mrs. Jane Unthank (an old local family).1 David Pugh was the occupant of the property, which had a NAV of £30.2 In 1902-03, Mrs. Malcolmson occupied, Mrs. Unthank's property, which still had a NAV of £30, but now had an orchard.3 The first mention of a residence on the property was in 1903-04, when Charles Wells Junior was the occupant.4 However the NAV remained the same.5

In 1910 Jane Unthank divided the property into 3 lots, selling the house and 15 acres to Thomas J. Lawry.6 The NAV decreased to £25.7 Lawry owned and occupied Struan until he sold it to John Manchester in 1916.8 Ownership of the property passed to Williams George Manchester, a barrister and solicitor, in 1917.9

Struan changed owners again in 1920, when Rudolph Werner of Richmond purchased the 21 room house on 15 acres, with an unusually low rate valuation of £25.10 A new house was built or extensive renovations made to the existing house in 1924, as the NAV increased from £25 to £400 in that year.11 Werner owned Struan until his death, in the mid – 1940s. During that time the NAV of the property decreased to £345 in 1936 and to £300 in 1940.12 When Struan passed from R. Werner's estate to Escort Rudolph Werner, on February 16th, 1945, it occupied 18 acres.13

Dr. Frank R. Vincent purchased Struan, now occupying 16 acres, on January 3rd, 1951 and named it after a property in Naracoorte owned by his mother's family, the Robertsons.14 A doctor at the Frankston Hospital, Dr. Vincent and his wife, Edna, owned and occupied Struan until they sold it to the Education Department in 1957.15 It became part of the Frankston Teachers' College complex which later incorporated into Monash University.16

Rudolph Werner was a Richmond refrigeration engineer, whose company manufactured ammonia compression refrigeration and ice-making machinery on both a large and small scale.17

The Unthank family (via Thomas) was among the area's early freeholders 9CA37, O'Neill's and Dandenong - Hastings Road Corner). Unthank settled at Somerville in the late 1860s, where he had selected under the 1869 Act (CA4).

Description
Of the two dates possible for this building (1904, 1924), the latter is probable although general alterations to the exterior has removed identifying details.

Built of a bright red brick with a (new) corrugated steel roof, the house has that tea-house roof form (Dutch hip) associated with the Edwardian Federation Bungalows and Queen Anne style houses alike, but the austere wall and porch treatment, considered with the paneled balustrade of the once open north – facing terrace, suggest a 1920s design, (see Cook House, 9 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivan hoe).

Given the degree of alterations and with no evidence of it pre-existing state, the house is historically symbolic only of, for example, Rudolf Werner's occupation. Reputedly the present strong room is one of Werner's large cool rooms, converted. Werner reputedly also installed central heating and built a tennis court.18

The surviving mature landscape (Auracaria sp.) is notable for Frankston (a city with only a small number of aged exotic trees) and, with the house, draws attention to this site as an old one.

External Integrity
Terrace and dormer porch enclosed, general alteration in detail and major landscape modification, (carports, fence removed).

Context
Set on a hillside within open grounds, the house is prominent, as is its surviving landscape.

Landscape
Remnants of the original gardens include: Pheonix canariensis, Populus nigra 'Italica', Arbutus unedo, Araucaria heterophylla and Eucalyptus ficifolia in the car park while, to the south of the former house, are Malus spp., Camellia and Agonis Flexuosa.

Significance – Study Grading C
Architecturally, little is known of the house's original state; of local interest.

Historically, recognizable as a landmark in the city's history, comparable with the Tofts, Davey Street, and other large houses along the coast; also identifiable with locally prominent figures such as the Vincents and the regionally known Rudolf Werner: of local importance and regional interest.