Milligan House, Brighton, 1922

The Milligan House was designed by the widely travelled architect Leslie M. Perrott, member of the American Concrete Institute and pioneer in the use of concrete in residential construction in Australia. This house appeared twice in Perrott's book 'Concrete Homes' which was published in 1925. First, the Milligan House was used to advertise the 'pleasing colour combination between grey cement tiles (of the Federal Roofing Tile Co Pty Ltd) and white concrete' and secondly, it was illustrated by Perrott as a standard concrete house type in his catalogue of house plans. Each bedroom in this low-slung bungalow has a glass door opening onto a sleep-out verandah with roll-down canvas blinds. From the simple post-and-rail front fence, a curving garden path led to the spacious 12 foot square front entrance porch complete with deck chairs to enjoy the sun. While most bungalows in suburbs such as East Kew and Murrumbeena were timber framed with heavy verandah piers, Perrott's concrete houses presented an innovative and economically competitive alternative to the standard builder's house of the 1920s.