Grand Hotel At Chowringee Road Calcutta, 1908 Postcard
This 1908 photo postcard shows the Grand Hotel in Chowringee Road, Calcutta or Kolkata. Also fondly referred to as the Grande Dame of Chowringee. Prior to that, it was the private residence of a Colonel Grand in the early 19th century. A British lady Mrs Annie Monk bought out the building and converted it into a boarding house.
The building was then again sold to one Arathoon Stephen an Armenian businessman. Who established a hotel naming it Grand Hotel. It had its ups and downs, in the 1930s after the passing away of Stephen, a typhoid epidemic resulted in the death of six people in the hotel. The drainage system was suspected and the establishment down closed for six years.
Another ambitious entrepreneur Mohan Singh Oberoi took over the property in 1937. Since then it is with the Oberoi Group now known as the- The Oberoi Grand Kolkata. Read more- The Grand Dame of Chowringee. Notice a signboard on the groundfloor that reads “Lyon & Lyon Gun & Rifle Makers.”
Did you know- in 1717, Chowringee was a small village surrounded by paddy fields. Beyond the paddy fields, there were jungles where Warren Hastings hunted tigers on elephant back.
From the collection- Old Air-India Postcard – M F Hussain’s Ragamala Painting., Mahatma Gandhi With His Followers – Press Photo 1933., Vintage Postcard Writer’s Building Calcutta 1900., Antique Photograph Calcutta Horse-Drawn Tram 1880., Our Journey Around The World – 1894 Book
