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 single and double block of 17 and 18.
Not built in 1895
Myles McLaughlin – resident 1900
James McLaughlin – resident 1905
David Law – resident 1910
Jeremiah Quinlan / Mrs M McLaughlin – 1915
David R Brooks – resident 1920
Frances Allchin (Asphalter) & Ellen Allchin – 1925-1950
Les Sandiford – resident 1960-1965
The flats below were built in the late sixties. The 1975 Sands & McDougall records that A Arrissian is the resident at (5) 443 Napier Street.
