The historic women’s hat factory that was destroyed in a devastating Sydney CBD fire had fallen into disrepair in recent years, before it was due to be developed into a hotel.
The RC Henderson factory was the home of women’s felt hats in Australia for decades, but had been vandalised with graffiti and filled with rubbish.
It is also believed to have become a refuge for rough sleepers.
Two teenagers have been questioned by police over “once in a decade” blaze, which will likely mean the whole building has to be demolished.
Liz Kitchen, the daughter of Rolla Crosby Henderson, worked in the factory after leaving school at 16.
Now in her 90s and living in Western Australia, she said watching the fire rip through her family legacy on the news was shocking.
“I was very sad. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“It had fire escapes, they had water sprinklers. That’s about all I can remember. But it shouldn’t have gone up like that.”
The NSW government’s State Heritage Inventory shows RC Henderson Pty Ltd was a major manufacturer of ladies’ hats from 1905 into the 1950s.
Its factory was sold to developers Hanave in 1978, and has been rented out as office space intermittently since then.
Real estate photos from 2017 depict a bright, warehouse-style space for lease as office space.
But TikTok videos reportedly taken two weeks ago show the interior of the building had been graffitied and the floors strewn with rubbish.
The factory had also narrowly escaped a fire once before.
“On 11 July 1927, the nearby Morton’s printery in Chalmers Street burnt down, causing some damage to RC Henderson’s millinery factory,” the State Heritage Inventory said.
The damage mostly occurred to the building next door, 7 Randle Street.
Number 7 was also derelict before it was destroyed in Thursday’s fire, after its former tenants, the Ding Dong Dang Karaoke Club, closed during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The directors of family company Hanave, Robert and Geula Bourke, are understood to be too upset to speak.
They had planned to develop the factory into a 123-room hotel, called “The Hat Hotel”, keeping intact its Federation Warehouse-style frontage.
The former Ding Dong Dang karaoke bar was set to be demolished along with 15 Randle Street.
The project received approval in 2020 and was waiting the start of construction.
Hanave ran a competition to find the best architectural design, according to a development application lodged with the City of Sydney.
Architect Tim Greeg, from the winning firm Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, said the destruction of his project site was crushing.
“Shocked. Devastated really,” he said.
“It’s come at a time when there’s been six years of incredibly hard work that’s been put into this project.
“The music’s stopped, I guess.”