3.0 Civic and Commercial Frankston

3.1 Civic Frankston
Beyond Frankston's history in holiday-making, housing and farming it, like other municipalities, has several buildings and parks which served as focal points for local social life. These, parks and buildings, have often undergone dramatic changes over the last fifty years. But still they can remind us of the history of the suburb, as can the many churches in the suburb, particularly those with the most dramatic siting, those which have played a central role in local activities and the churches which make the best use of traditional designs.

The small townships to the east, Langwarrin, Carrum Downs, Skye and Baxter, also contained a cluster of buildings, such as churches and schools, that were centres of social activity, although depended for many services on the larger town centres at Frankston and Cranbourne.

3.2 Commercial Life
The business hub of Frankston has been reshaped in recent decades. Yet there are still some important buildings in this district which predate the Second World War. There are also buildings which were designed as prototypes for the standard supermarket and shopping malls of every post-war suburb.

3.3 Transport
The character of modern Frankston depends on the links it has had with Melbourne. At first it was reached by a rough road and occasionally by sea. The railway opened up Frankston to many more holiday-makers from the city. Finally the motor car has reshaped much of the character of Frankston bringing to the suburb distinctive forms of street architecture and new functional buildings, amongst them drive-in cinemas and petrol stations. The present suburb is, in common with the rest of urban Australia, still being reshaped by the motor car.

Similar trends are observable in the townships to the east, where the first rough tracks gave way to unmade roads and, after the formation of the Country Roads Board in 1912, and the advent of the motor car, to improved metalled roads by the 1920s.1