Oceanic Hotel, History of estuary, Heritage Walk, Adyar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

2^nd October 2016.

On 2^nd October 2016, we covered areas of historical and social importance on the north side of the Adyar Creek, Once the best Hotel and oceanic hotel in town, Two Churches with streets surrounded by the converted Christians who 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 the 1950s on the Santhome High Road, on the banks of River Adyar. Today all that remains is an empty plot of land with a crumbling welcome arch. Only some of the letters remind us that there was a Hotel, long back in this place. One Could have a Bay of Bengal sea view, the remains of Leith Castle and Port, Port built by the Portuguese were gone and the Three streets bear the name of Leith Castle. The sea View also vanished due to urbanization in front of the Hotel. Despite that,  the present  Hotel Sangeetha and an Old household the names of Sea View and Marine View.

The Oceanic Hotel was built on six acres of land bought by a lawyer, K.R. Shenai, in 1917. He sold the property to M.S. Ramaswamy Chettiar of Mahalakshmi Films. Two hotels, Oceanic and Ratnagar, were built on the plot. They have ultra-modern facilities, including Air Conditioning, an Ice Cream Parlour, Refrigerators, Electric fans, Kitchen utensils, and 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 into a Land Ceiling Act case and finally in 1993 the case was settled and the operations of the hotel were also shut down.  

Location : CLICK HERE 

 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 is 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 the 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 )