Tellilya

25 Bembridge Avenue, Frankston South

History
Built: 1949
William H. Raleigh, an architect, of Grange Road, Frankston, owned Lots 25 and 26 Bembridge Avenue in the Grange Estate in 1946.1 Geoffrey Wescott and Joan Goodes, of Gould Street, Frankston, purchased Lot 26 from Raleigh and applied for a permit to build a permanent residence here in 1949 using the notable architect, Roy (later Sir Roy) Grounds.2 The original design was arranged around five large guns, with the front set-back of the house minimized and the service areas facing the street. Typically for Grounds, the living areas were directed towards both the garden and the north aspect (and hence the sun).3 Large windows looked into the garden (protected by a pergola) and the plan was open, resulting in the rear garden views being evident from the entry hall. Grounds reputedly first opted for eight feet high but capitulated under official pressure from the building surveyor. The builder was N A Echberg of Frankston, this being the first time this notable combination of builder and architect worked together (see second, Henty house, Nepean Highway).

In 1959 they commissioned John M. Rosenthal, of Oliver's Hill, Frankston, to design alterations and additions to the house now named Tellilya.4 Echberg also constructed the additions and alterations at an estimated cost of £1,600.5 Geoffrey, a merchant, and Joan Goodes owned and occupied Tellilya until after 1960.6

The noted botanist, Leon Costermans, leased the attached flat during the preparation of his book Native Trees and Shrubs of South-Eastern Australia, published by Rigby in 1981.7 He was lecturing at Chisolm Institute of Technology, Frankston. Costermans also wrote Trees of Victoria in 1966 after a long involvement with the bush, bushwalking, teaching, and the Scout movement.

Description
Set behind a mature garden frontage, the house is Modernist or 'contemporary' in design with gently sloping skillion roof forms, broad brick chimney expressed at one end, stained (sump oil) vertical boarding and contrasting painted timber-framed window walls, like Ground's own house on the nearby Ranelagh estate. Stage one is among the earliest Modernist designs in the area. Internally the cork floor tiles are original.

External Integrity
Given two construction stages, generally original.

Context
Contributes well to overall Bembridge Avenue character where mainly 'contemporary' architecture is sited in a blend of mature native and exotic planting.

Significance – Study Grading B
Architecturally, this is a simple early Modernist house which was designed by the noted residential architect, Roy Grounds, in the bush/beach house tradition, to blend with the valuable exotic and native landscaping, both on the site and in the street generally, and maximize the site usage and sun penetration to the house in winter: of regional and local importance.

Historically, a good and early example of the work of prominent local builder N.A. Echberg, working for the first time with Grounds, also of interest as an appropriate setting for the preparation of the Botanist's Native Flora Bible, Native Trees and Shrubs of South-eastern Australia: of local importance.