Future Nobel laureate William Bragg designs Catherwood House, East Terrace, Adelaide city, for his family from 1899

Catherwood House, the name given to the home designed and built by future Nobel Prize winner William Bragg, on East Terrace, Adelaide city, for his family, including son Lawrence (also a Nobel Prize for physics winner). Inset: A plaque unveiled on the centerary of Bragg's father in law, the also-famous Charles Todd, laying the home's foundation stone in 1889. In 1959, the home was taken over by the Public Schools Club who made additions, including Club Braggs restaurtant, to the front of the building

William Bragg, future Nobel Prize winner for physics, planned to build a new home for his family, including son Lawrence (also a future Nobel Prize for physics winner) on their return home from a visit to England in 1899.

Bragg bought land on the corner of Carrington Street and East Terrace, Adelaide. The property, like that the family's previous home on LeFevre Terrace, North Adelaide, had views over parklands to the hills.

After the Braggs returned to Adelaide from England in 1899, they lived at the Observatory on West Terrace, Adelaide city, with Charles Todd whose wife Alice had died the year before.William Bragg's father in law, Todd, South Australia's astronomer general and postmaster general, was also the famous leader of the Darwin to Port Augusta telegraph project in the 1870s.

For East Terrace, William Bragg designed a two-storey house with Edwardian gables and made a cardboard model of it so his wife Gwendoline could understand fully the plans. Charles Todd laid the house's foundation stone in 1899 and named it Catherwood House after William’s boyhood home in Market Harborough, England. With a loan from the Savings Bank of South Australia, the large brick residence rose quickly.

In a small plot at the back of the house, William Bragg developed his love of gardening.  Also in the backyard, a galvanised-iron shed was used by the Bragg boys Lawrence and Robert as a workshop. They made endless gadgets, including an electric bell, for nursemaid Charlotte to summon them to tea; a telephone and a dock. There were several family pets: Tom the fox terrier, a cat, parrot, canary and Tim the sparrow.

In 1901, Catherwood House had a view of Victoria Park and its racecourse, where a military review took place for the visit to Adelaide in 1901 of the duke and duchess of Cornwall of Cornwall and York. Catherwood House was draped with red, white and blue bunting for the visit, and William Bragg set up a grandstand on land nearby. Flowers decorated the house and Gwen Bragg provided afternoon tea.

The house was their family home for nine years (until 1909), while Lawrence was completing the first stage of his tertiary education and his father William was working on the early experiments and research in the field that was to make them, in 1915, joint winners of the Nobel Prize for physics. 

The East Terrace house was later sold to the Sandford family and, in 1959, it became the Public Schools Club. Both the Braggs’ Lefevre Terrace, North Adelaide, and East Terrace houses were included on the register of South Australian state heritage items, on the basis of their association with the Bragg family.