A Historic Landmark

Historical context and architectural significance play a key role in our society.

Originally built as a wool store, our building opened on January 19, 1888, and is one of Sydney’s earliest Victorian warehouses. It is the oldest surviving wool store with a saw-tooth roof, ranking fourth among the 21 remaining in Sydney. Designed by Morell and Kemp, the building features a Mannerist-style entrance and a unique ironbark structure that adapts to its wedge-shaped design.

Pyrmont became a hub for wool storage in the late 19th century due to its proximity to Darling Harbour’s rail and shipping services. The original owner, J.H. Geddes, was a pioneer in the wool industry and the first to adopt mechanical shearing equipment.

In 1988, the building was converted into office spaces, later becoming a hotel in the 2000s. Many original elements remain, including ironbark beams, double brick walls, and heritage desks crafted from salvaged timber. The Atrium was designed to showcase the building’s architecture from top to bottom.

The original main entrance now serves as a private entry to our Ground Floor Suite, framed by sandstone quarried from Pyrmont’s Freestone Quarries. Two industrial entrances once enabled horse-and-cart access for loading and unloading wool; today, one is the hotel’s main entrance, while the other serves as the staff entry. The wooden track in the lobby marks the original transport route.

The Fourth Floor, originally used for classifying and displaying wool, was chosen for its natural light and harbor views. The exposed saw-tooth timber roofing, a pioneering feature here, later became standard in Sydney warehouses. The hotel’s custom-built glass elevators were added to highlight the building’s heritage.

The Legacy of Percy Ewart

James Percy Edward Ewart, affectionately known as simply Percy, was born in Redfern in May 1891 to John and Sarah Ewart and was the eldest of eight children. He grew up in Rozelle, where he lived his entire life. After finishing school, he immediately went to work in the various wool stores around Pyrmont, closely followed by his brothers.

Being a wool classer, he worked up on the 4th floor where he classed and valued the wool. The 4th floor was where the wool was shown for sale due to the excellent lighting and view that came from Darling Harbour at the time. Percy is forever enshrined in the building as he has carved his name into the sandstone windowsill outside what is now room 413.

He met and married Jane Osterlund in 1913 while working as a wool classer at Wyly, Trenchard and Co. Together, they had 4 daughters. Lillian Jane, Gladys Ellen, Ethel Alice Harriet and Alma Violet. Their first daughter, Lillian Jane, unfortunately, passed away less than a year after she was born.

Percy always wore a trilby hat and loved to tilt it at the ladies as they walked by. He loved a smoke and a bottle or two of wine, much to his wife’s distaste. While she enjoyed a drink or two, she believed that wine, referred to as plonk at the time, was a drink for derelicts. As a result, Percy had to partake in his “hobby” over a secret game of cards after hours with the other men from the neighbourhood. It is only fitting that he gets his very own neighbourhood wine bar “PERCY” named after him in the building where he spent so much of his life.

Moving into the Modern Era

In late 1988, the process of converting the building into office spaces began, and by the late 2000s, it had been transformed into a hotel. The building retains much of its original character, featuring ironbark timber beams and double brick walls throughout the foyer and most of the rooms. To preserve its history, desks in the rooms were crafted from timber salvaged from the building. The Atrium was included as part of a conservation effort to allow guests to appreciate the building’s architecture from top to bottom.

The original main entrance of the building is located on the side that now serves as a private entrance to our Ground Floor Suite. The sandstone surrounding the entrance and the windows was quarried from the Freestone Quarries in Pyrmont.

The building had two industrial entrances: one is our hotel’s current main entrance, while the other serves as our staff entrance. These entrances used to provide straight access to mirrored exits on the other side, along a horse and cart track that facilitated quick loading and unloading of sheep and equipment on the ground floor before exiting onto Pyrmont Street. In the lobby, you will notice a wooden track running across the ground, which marks the original trail used for entering and exiting the building.

The Fourth Floor was initially used to classify and display wool for sale. This floor was selected for its excellent lighting and views of the shipping operations in Darling Harbour at that time, as The Novotel did not exist then. The current rooms on the Fourth Floor still feature the original exposed saw-tooth timber roofing, which later became a standard design element for Sydney warehouses after its first implementation here.

The glass elevators in the lobby were custom-built for the hotel during its conversion, allowing the heritage and beauty of the building to be showcased as you head up to your room.