Residents of Chennai would have been familiar with a 135 year old building in George Town. This register office building has been neglected for many decades. It is now said that this building would be renovated and by this renovation the building would get new lease of life. The building based on Indo- Saracenic architecture located n the Rajaji Salai would soon be brought back to life by the Public Works Department or PWD.
It is known that the historic Humayun Mahal at Chepauk has already been taken up for renovation by the building centre and conservation division of PWD. Now the renovation of this 135 year old register office building would be the second heritage building to get renovated. The important information collected is PWD would carry out the renovation work of nearly 25000 sq ft structure and an amount of Rs 9.62 crores would be spent for this purpose. An official belonging to the PWD spoke about how to revive the 135 year old building, the help of PWD was sought by the registration department. Few years ago, this building was abandoned after a collapse is known.
The sources have confirmed now that the restoration of the building would be carried out by using traditional Mughal plastering methodology and natural as well as eco-friendly materials etc.
The official of PWD further explained about how a preliminary study on the building found that Madras terrace roofing has been damaged and some portions have collapsed. It must be noted that the windows and doors have been completely damaged and few panels were missing. The renovation of the building would take about a year.
It was in the year 1884 this heritage building was built and the two storey building is one of the oldest under the registration department. The important information is the process of registering properties came into being from the year 1865.
Not many are aware that this building had many offices like Royapuram sub-registrar office, district register office of north Chennai and office of the deputy inspector general of registration operating till 2 years back. The man behind the designing and construction of this 135 year old heritage building was Mr. Robert Fellowes Chisholm. He was a consulting architect to the then government of Madras for 14 years from 1872. This was according to the PWD records. As per Mr. Venkatesh who is a writer cum heritage enthusiast, Chisolm could be regarded as the father of Indo-Saracenic architecture.