Monolyte House, Enfield (1914)

Location

28 Burwood Ave, Nailsworth, SA

Construction Type

Monolyte method – cast in place concrete walls

History

Under the trade name ‘Monolyte’ Samuel Bowering Marchant built several houses around the Adelaide suburbs of Torrensville and Prospect and subsequently his patented system was used experimentally for housing by the State Savings Bank of Victoria in 1924-25 and later in the Canberra suburb of Griffith (formerly South Blankfordia). Presumably the name Monolyte (also earlier Monolite) was chosen with reference to the ‘monolithic’ construction. Two of Marchant’s earliest houses survive at Balaklava, on the corner of Balaklava Rd and Higham Ave. Eleven of the state bank funded Victorian houses also survive at the Concrete Housing Estate at Sunshine in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

25 Burwood Avenue, Enfield was constructed using the system in 1914, and appeared in the 1925 Prospectus of Monolyte Constructions (Vic. and S.A.). It is only one of two Monolyte houses that are known to display a Californian bungalow influence.