Grassmere
Tamil Nadu Archives, 51/28, Gandhi Irwin Road, Egmore |
Grassmere was a State-owned garden house. At the beginning of the 20th Century, its site was earmarked for the construction of a hospital but the noise and the hustle and bustle of the nearby railway station proved a deterrent. Government at the time was looking for a suitable home for the Madras Records Office, which traces its origins to a decision taken by Governor William Langhorne in 1672 to record all decisions of the Government, thereby qualifying it to be the oldest in Asia. The Records Office was initially in Fort St. George. In 1909, a decision was taken to identify a permanent location and Grassmere was selected.
T. Loganatha Mudaliar, who had made his name building St. Marks’ Church in Bangalore, won the contract of Rs. 2.2 lakh to alter the building and make it suitable for housing archival material. It is a classic in the Indo-Saracenic style, with exposed brickwork all along the exterior. There are seven record rooms, a library of books and magazines, and separate spaces for scholars to sit and read. An additional Rs. 1.17 lakh was spent for the stacks and furniture and what was titled the Madras Records Office and Archives was opened here in October 1909. It is today used extensively for reference by scholars from all over the world. The Archives have in their collection Dutch, Danish, Persian, English and Tamil records. The very first issue of the Madras Courier dating back to 1795 can be found here, as well as old maps and books. (Courtesy: KalamKriya.)
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