Sullivan Gardens
St. Ebba’s School, 60 Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (Edward Elliot’s) Road, Mylapore |
Incredible though it may seem today, this vast building with its turrets and battlements was a residence too. It was home to Benjamin Sullivan, Attorney-General in the 1780s and, later, a Judge. The entire property, with its vast acreage, was called Sullivan Gardens.
In the 1840s, the Madras Diocesan Committee of the Society for Propagating the Gospel purchased the property for Rs. 20,000 and converted it into a seminary and college. St. Ebba’s School, which was founded in 1886 in northwestern Luz, moved into the property later and has functioned from there ever since.
Much of what was Sullivan Gardens land was sold off for city development and the area came to be named Sullivan Garden Road. It was on one side of this road that the legal luminary Sir P.S. Sivaswami Iyer (1864-1946) built his mansion Sudharma on a five-acre plot, which was later acquired by business magnate S. Anantharamakrishnan (1905-1964). Sudharma survives, with attention and care being lavished on it. It is one of the last surviving stately mansions on Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Road, a thoroughfare that once had bungalows on both sides, all the way to the beach. Sullivan Garden Road has been renamed P.S. Sivaswami Iyer Road.
St. Ebba’s has found the maintenance of the historic building tough and now and then there is talk of the structure being pulled down to make way for a modern school premises. But as of now it survives – and so all may yet be well. (Courtesy: KalamKriya.)
Srinath Baug
Last fortnight we inadvertently repeated the picture of Sri Bagh which had been used in Madras Musings of March 1st. We present here today the correct picture of Srinath Baug which Sriram wrote about last fortnight.
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