Background
In the late 1830s the land of Fitzroy was subdivided into sections along with other areas north of the city. Within Fitzroy there were 12 sections, the most undesirable, being section 85 which consisted of majority swamp lands. I am not sure who purchased section 85 of Jika Jika parish, but, at some point between the late 1830’s and 1970’s the land becomes the property of J.M. Smith Esq. a solicitor from England who was fast making his fortunes in Melbourne. Over the period from 1840-1880 the large sections of Fitzroy were broken down and subdivided for the purpose of building houses (refer Fitzroy – Melbourne’s First Suburb, p.10-11, The First Suburb by Miles Lewis). The last of these sections was section 85. In 1876, a plan for the subdivision of the block bordered by Cecil St (N), Young St (W), Westgarth St (S) and Napier St (E) was created. You can see from the map below that there was a strange design applied to the sites. In particular, on Napier St, site 12, 14, 16 and 18 were double blocks.
This site was the double block ’14’. The purchaser was likely the builder and built both 433 and 435 together.
William G Barton – resident 1890
Vacant in 1895
Thomas Ferguson – resident 1900
Thomas Brown – resident 1905
Harry Barnett – resident 1910
John Carter – resident 1915
Joshua L Cartmel – resident 1920
Thomas William Naughton (Labourer) and Margaret Mary Naugton (Home Duties) – resident 1925 (Sands & MacDougall, 1925 & Electoral Roll, 1925)
Jos. L Bailey – resident 1930
Jason P Flanagan – resident 1935-1940
Chas H Sprague – resident 1945
Mitchell Rafferty – resident 1950-1955
H Demaroo – resident 1960-1965
S Kyriakous – resident 1970-1975
I lived at 435 Napier for a decade from 1985-‘95. It was still in very much the original state, the only alterations being the removal of any fireplaces and a very dodgy insertion of a kitchen in what was the original outside passage running the length of the rear two rooms – hence leaving those rooms ( living and dining ) without any windows other than opening in to the very narrow ( 1.2m ), long kitchen.
A lean-to bathroom, containing only a bath and a laundry tub, was tacked on to the back of the house, the walls of which were so rotted that you could pull the outside wall away from the foundation to unbolt the inside latch – no security, but incredibly handy when you were locked out of the house…
The toilet was still in the far corner of the backyard, under the canopy of a massive Nectarine tree which could drop over a thousand fruit in a prolific year! ( great, until the festering fruit began fermenting…).