Tarraleah

95 Gould Street, Frankston

History
Built: 1960 Allotment 11, Gould Street was owned by William Godwin Bailey of 97 Gould Street, in 1953.1 The land measured 50 feet by 152 feet and backed onto Kananook Creek.2 In March, 1960, Bailey, a painter, applied for a permit to remove a one- storey house of 1350 square feet3 and applied for a building permit, in April 1960, to replace it with a 'double fronted brick veneer residence'.4 The architect was Ian Banner (who was then 20 and later worked for Chancellor & Patrick) and the contractor, J.A. Austin of Seaford. The house, at 1760 square feet in area, was estimated to cost £6,000 but eventually cost £7,500.5 Beryl and Russell Bailey also lived here in 1960.6

The house appeared in House and Garden, Australian Kitchens & Bathrooms and House and Garden Annual7

Description
A salmon pink brick and timber flat-roof house containing two bedrooms, a large north-facing living area, office, study, kitchen, bathroom and other service rooms. On the opposite side of the entrance a double pergola-covered carport faces Gould Street, connecting via a wide drive to a garage at the rear. With its flat multi-level overhanging roof planes, resulting highlight windows, masonry walls extended from inside the house to beyond the roof overhang and expressed masonry chimneys, the house is a good example of its era, paralleling with the work of other Victorian architects such as Neil Clerehan and Graham Gunn.

Overseas precedents include the Wright house designs of the mid- 1930s onwards (typically the Kaufmann house, 1936) and even the classically inspired houses of Van der Rohe (Farnsworth, 1946-50).

To the disgust of traditionalists like Edna Walling (see Lavender Lane), the aims of these designers were to allow the 'flow of space' from one type of room occupation to another, preferably (as with the Japanese House) without the hindrance of walls. Similarly, the house landscaping was not only on view from inside the house, it also became part of the inside, by sliding back the big glazed doors and communing with the garden courtyard under the cover of a pergola or extended rafters/purlins comprised of stained and sizable timber beams.

Landscape
Of note is the large coastal tea-tree specimen on the adjoining nature strip, apparently a remnant of the indigenous landscape which once prevailed along Gould Street and in this case preserved by the house owner.8

External Integrity
Original.9

Significance - Study Grading C
Architecturally, the design is successful within the concepts favoured by leading house designers of the time and a perpetuation of the 'contemporary' or Modernist approach, once epitomised by Long Island's post-War development with designs such as this one, 30 Gould Street and an earlier house by Roy Grounds (demolished): of regional significance and local importance.

Historically, a good example of the Modern architectural character prominent in Long Island after World War II.