PHOTOGRAPH: 101 BAGOT ROAD 'MEROWA' , NATIONAL ESTATE SURVEY COLLECTION

From a series of photographs taken by Ian Molyneux for the National Estate Survey of Subiaco in 1985.

The house was constructed in 1902.

Perth Suburban Lots 243 to 246 were subdivided as Deposited Plan 352 in the early 1890s. This comprised 141 lots of which Lot 7 was developed as 101 Bagot Road. This had been developed by 1903, when the Subiaco Rate Books identified W Jewell as the owner/occupier. Entries in the Post Office Directories indicate that this was a local plasterer/builder, William George Jewell, who lived here until c.1904. William Jewell (1869-1940) was born in Ballarat, Victoria, and had moved to Western Australia by 1898, when he was living in John Street, Subiaco (with his wife, Mary, and young children, Ivy and Floris). In the Electoral Rolls of 1903, William Jewell was listed as a plasterer of Bagot Road. By 1908 he was listed in the Post Office Directory as a builder of 117 Hamersley Road and by 1912 as contractor of 300 Rokeby Road. Research has indicated that he built at least 6 houses in Subiaco, which he occupied for varying periods. “Merowa”, a five-room brick villa on the corner of Bagot Road and Francis Street, was being advertised for sale at the beginning of 1904.