2nd October 2016.
On 2nd October
2016, We had covered areas of historical and social importance on the north side
of the Adyar creek, Once the best Hotel, Oceanic hotel in town, Two
Churches with streets surrounded by the converted Christians migrated from
Madurai and Ramnad areas, Dhyana Ashram, the king who
committed suicide and the haunted bungalow Admiralty House, the movie
mogul who started out, a Christian Cemetery in the Quibble Island where
Portuguese buried with some recent famous personalities, the house where
a famous Indian finance minister grew up and could not inherit the house
because he had married outside his caste and ends with the place where the
Adyar battle took place. Thanks Mr Venkatesh and Vincent D’ Souza for taking us
through the history of Adyar creek Heritage walk.
OCEANIC HOTEL
The Hotel was very famous during
1950s on the Santhome High road, on the banks of River Adyar. Today all that
remain is an empty plot of land with a the crumbling welcome arch. Only some of
the letters reminds that there was a Hotel, long back on this place. One Could
have Bay of Bengal sea view, the remains of Leith castle and Port, Port built
by the Portuguese were gone and the Three streets bears the name of Leith
Castle. The sea View also vanished due to urbanization in front of the Hotel.
In spite of that, the present Hotel Sangeetha and an Old house
holds the names of Sea View and Marine view.
The Oceanic Hotel was in a six
acres of land bought by a lawyer K.R. Shenai in the year 1917. He sold the
property to M.S. Ramaswamy Chettiar of Mahalakshmi Films. Two hotels Oceanic
and Ratnagar were built in the plot with Ultra modern facilities with
Air Conditioning, Ice Cream Parlour, Refrigerators, Electric fans, Kitchen
utensils, Lawn movers. There were only three such Hotels in the City in those
days.
After Ramaswamy Chettiar’s
demise the Hotel was leased to R. Kapanipathi Rao by his son Meyyappan.
The lease was also renewed in 1965 and continued up to 1970. After that the
Hotels are handed over to Meyyappan through Madras High Court after a legal
battle. Again the property ran in to a Land ceiling act case and finally in
1993 the case was settled and the operations of the hotel was also shut.
Our Heritage walk route
Oceanic Hotel Old View
Oceanic Hotel Present
View of the Arch
Oceanic Hotel Present
View of the Arch
Hotel Sangeetha Santhome -Holds the name of Ocean Court and Sea View.
Hotel Sangeetha - Holds the name of Ocean Court and Sea View.
The House named
after Marine View
The House named after Marine View
O. Thanikachalam Chetti’s family lives here (There is a street named
after him at T Nagar ) He was the pioneer of the dravidian movement. In 1921 B
& C Mills strike he supported the caste Hindu workers and
strongly criticized the actions of the Dalit workers and police
…. To be Continued. ( St. Lazarus Church )
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