Doveton House - the building that houses the Principal,
Registrar and Bursar's office is celebrating its 200th year this
year. Yes that's true, for Doveton House was constructed in the
year 1798 - the period when Wordsworth and Coleridge published
their "Lyrical Ballads".
A renowned architect Benjamin Roebeck, who
built the house in the fashion of the day, built Doveton House.
The colonial pillars in the front and the half moon steps at the
back of the house resemble another famous building of the same
period - the White House. It was the second European style
house, built in the then paddy fields in Nungambakkam. It mainly
served as a residential place for the English officers. The
building was called Devotion House after Lt. General John
Doveton acquired it in the year 1837 (he arrived in Madras in
1783 and died in 1847). Lt. General Doveton was
soldier-in-charge for looking after Tippu Sultan's sons when
Cornwallis held them as hostages in Madras.
Doveton House seems to have served as a place
for keeping prisoners in custody. For, before Lt. General
Doveton, Gaekwad of Baroda was kept here for trying to kill a
British resident in his state.
Many famous people continued to live, but the
name Doveton House stuck on. The last person to live here was
Sir Ralph Benson, a Madras High Court Judge, who left Madras in
1913. It was then in 1916 that Women's Christian College moved
into Doveton House, a 20-acre campus. Doveton House from then
has been a seat of learning to many generations and continues to
be so, as WCC is administered from these buildings and classes
are being held even today. It was quite famous in those days
with parties being held often. The most admired was the "placid
and silvery Cooum". Despite the fact that 200 years have passed
by, Doveton House still continues to be a marvel to many who for
the first time enter WCC and witness its beauty and splendor.
Other Interesting Facts
College Road got its name not from WCC but
from 'College of Fort St. George' - then used to train young
Britishers. It is now situated in the D.P.I. campus. Shastri
Bhavan and Grindlays Bank were once covered by 100 acres of
botanical gardens called 'Anderson's Garden'. The arched gateway
of the D.P.I. exists from the year 1826. The Nungambakkam
Observatory is as old as 1792 and was Asia's first modern
Observatory
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