69 Windmill Street, Millers Point is a heritage-listed residence and former retail building located at 69 Windmill Street, in the inner city Sydney suburb of Millers Point in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia.

[1] The subject site land was part of Lot 3 of Section 94 granted to Irish-born labourer Thomas Stevens.

Stevens did not serve his full term, by 1825 he had been freed and was employed by John Harris, Constable of the Melville district (near Bathurst).

The name is believed to derive from Thomas' love of hunting, however, as previously mentioned, there was an earlier "Hit or Miss Hotel" in Windmill Street in 1840.

Unlike many hotels in the area, the name did not indicate that it catered to a particular client group such as whalers or shipwrightts or nationality, such as the "Erin-go-Bragh".

John Stevens is recorded as adding an awning to his premises at 6 Windmill Street in 1879 (to the original "Hit or Miss Hotel".

Following the court case in 1897-8, J. M. Stevens and a number of family members acquired the adjacent land building a tenement block, residence and the new Hit or Miss Hotel.

The two Colonial Georgian houses fronting Windmill Street, the two storey timber residence at the rear and all the sheds were removed.

Some of the salvage materials appear to have been used to build the sandstone and brick block at the rear and part of the ground floor walls of the hotel.

The new Hit or Miss Hotel was complete by April 1899 and the tenement building a year later, just before the notification of the resumption of the entire block.

The (adjoining) Stevens Building was built before any government attempts to provide workers housing in Sydney and the block was very popular.

[1] The main block of the hotel is a three-storey rendered brick building with Italianate detailing and, in its original configuration, there was a timber post-supported verandah to the street.

It shows the neighbouring buildings and an empty lot on 716 and 716a (area of the subject site) suggesting that the redevelopment of the complex had not yet been completed.

In 1902 the subject site was listed under the Stevens Estate and had an annual gross value of £172, the building described in the Rates and Assessment books as a 3-storey hotel with a brick cellar and occupied by John M.

This was staged, the Darling Harbour Resumption in May 1900 and the entire Rocks area in December 1900, affecting parts of Millers Point and the wharfage along Sussex Street.

To administer these the government established a number of authorities aiming to address longstanding problems in housing, wharf accommodation and transport links, the longest-serving being the Sydney Harbour Trust.

Its statutory powers were comprehensive and supplanted the City Council's planning controls and other day-to-day functions such as road maintenance, etc.

The built character of Millers Point today with its finger jetties, large warehouses, terraces of working men's houses originate from this resumption.

A review by the new administration suggested that much needed to be done to bring dwellings up to standards expected of a government department specifically charged with providing adequate housing and a programme of property improvement began.

Like the MSB, the Housing Commission initially gave preference to long-term tenants who had connections with the maritime industry.