27 June 2025
One of the rare houses scattered around Melbourne by Walter Burley Griffin or his associates, this house on Balaclava Road East St Kilda was designed by EF Billson, who was Griffins first employee in 1916 (when he was still doing the architecture course at Melbourne University).
It dates from 1925 (or 1919 ?), and seems to be square, with the two main elevations the same except one has the front door.
B&W pics are @nationaltrustvic c1976, one of which must be the south side, now obscured by another house. With its steep roof peaks, leaning forward a bit, and diagonal pattern windows, it’s very Griffin style, going back for instance to a 1908 house in Chicago, or just back to the house in Eaglemont that another associate, Roy Lippincott, built for himself in 1917.
Billson formed a partnership with Lippincott from 1921, then later went out on his own, widening his range after 1930 into versions of Tudor and Mediterranean, and Modernism, most notably the Sanitarium Factory in Warburton. First two pics mine from 2019.
Storey of Melbourne 