Madras High Court & The Old New Lighthouse – 2 Postcards 1900
Two 1900 postcards of the Madras High Court and the old and the new Lighthouse. The old lighthouse is the 125-foot Doric column and the new one is the central dome of the High Court. Completed in 1844, it took about six years to construct the Doric column lighthouse that was designed by Capt. J E Smith.
This old Doric column lighthouse stood where the Esplanade was once located. The Madras High Court later came up on the Esplanade in 1894, see images. Its main central dome functioned as the new lighthouse from 1894, see images. It is reckoned that parts of the lamp unit of the old lighthouse were removed and installed in the new lighthouse.
The Madras High Court is the third oldest in India. The high courts of Calcutta and Bombay respectively are the oldest. It was originally located at the First Line Beach. It was known as the Supreme Court from 1817 to 1862, then remodeled as a High Court from 1862 onwards. By 1894 the Court moved to this Indo-Saracenic edifice with its central domed lighthouse.
Did you know – the first lighthouse in Madras operated in 1796 from the terrace of the officer’s mess in Fort St George.
Past posts – Oil Painting of Bunch of Roses British India, 1940., British Troops In Nizam’s Hyderabad, Old Photo 1900., View Of Bangalore From St Andrew’s Church 1890., Grand Hotel & Cars In Calcutta, Old Photo 1927.
