By 1877 the business, despite the cessation of the Empire in February 1875, had outgrown the existing premises at what was then 188-190 Pitt Street and Samuel purchased two adjoining blocks in Kent Street for a new building to re-house the administrative and printing functions of his two burgeoning publications. Adding to the pressure resulting from the increase in circulation, advances in printing technology and particularly the increased size of the presses had also added to the need for more space
Samuel paid £1,300 for the site in October 1877. The 2 blocks gave a total frontage to Kent Street of 44′ 2″ and the blocks were 117′ deep. The building was designed to occupy almost the whole site, utilizing the total frontage to Kent Street and having a depth of 90′, with access to a rear lane for delivery of supplies and despatch of the newspapers. It was designed as 12 “flats”, with 3 separate frontages of 4 storeys, each with its own separate entrances from Kent Street. The building was constructed between 1877 and 1879.
The new premises would have nearly doubled the available floor space. It is highly likely therefore, that in addition to providing for the newspaper businesses, there was scope for part of the premises to be leased, at least until the newspaper business expanded to the point where the whole was required.
Samuel died suddenly on 2 June 1878, and he never saw the completion of the building.
The building was never used for its intended purpose. An article in the AT&CJ states that the Pitt Street premises were able to be considerably enlarged and the plan to move therefore abandoned. Whether this is the whole story or whether the new management was against the move, will probably never be known.
Two of the 3 units were leased to Ariell’s, the Melbourne based “provision merchant and commission agent” for their International Stores. The third unit was retained by the newspaper business; fully equipped with type, presses and steam engine in case of a calamity (fire) at Pitt Street.
The fate of the building
On Samuel’s death in 1878, the Kent Street property became an asset of the newspaper business, and remained so until finally sold in 1923. Initially under Old System Title, it was converted to Torrens Title in 1917 by the then trustees, the surviving son Christopher and the then Editor of the Evening News, Walter Jeffrey, in preparation for the incorporation of the business as a public company, S. Bennett Limited in 1918. On incorporation, the Kent Street property passed to the new company.
It was finally disposed of by S Bennett Ltd in August 1923, to Hillcastle Ltd. The timing of its sale coincided with the purchase by S Bennett Ltd of the site in Elizabeth Street, which was to become the final location of the Evening News, and presumably the building was sold to provide funds for the acquisition of the site and construction of the new building. Perhaps this was the final acknowledgement that the building would never serve the purpose for which it was originally designed.
The façade has been preserved and now forms part of the Kent Street frontage of the ING Building (previously the Mercantile Mutual Insurance development) on the NW corner of King and Kent Streets