Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol XXXI No. 20, February 1-15, 2022
Heritage Watch: When a Historic Property Changes Hands
The newspapers are awash with rumours about the sale of the land on which Crowne Plaza (formerly Park Sheraton) stands. The present owners have denied it while the prospective buyers in sharp contrast have confirmed their interest in the transaction. They have also said that the hotel will make way for residential high rise once the deal goes through.
What is of interest to us at Madras Musings is that this is a property with a continuous record of its various owners, from 1780 onwards. Starting with George Mowbray we move on to John DeMonte and then via several others come down to the present. A more detailed story is carried in page six under the Lost Landmarks section. The hotel itself is very much part of the hospitality industry’s history in Chennai. It was conceived by industrialist T.T. Vasu and Veerappan, a Chettiar from Singapore, in the late 1960s, when the Connemara was the only such facility and nobody believed there was a market for more such establishments.
Our first photo shows T.T. Vasu at the puja that saw the commencement of interior work at the hotel in 1981. The second is of the inauguration of the hotel by R.M. Veerappan, then Minister in the MGR Government. Both these pics are courtesy the book TT Vasu, the man who could never say ‘No’, by S. Muthiah.
While we accept that sale and purchase of properties is par for the course, we request the buyers at least put up in their new building a plaque tracing the history of the property from the time of George Mowbray to the present.
