CHENNAI: The inauguration of Kalaignar Maaligai, Queen Mary’s College’s new administrative building, on Thursday would take many down memory lane, making them re-live two slices of Chennai’s history.
That the building, to be opened by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, has come up where a heritage edifice stood is old history. Capper House, as the building was called, was originally the residence of Lt Col Francis Capper in the mid 1800s. Then it housed Chennai’s first hotel — Capper’s Hotel — before it became the main building of Chennai’s first women’s college — Queen Mary’s — in 1914, said historian V Shriram. In more recent times, 2003 when the AIADMK was in power, Capper House was pulled down as it became derelict and unsafe. The AIADMK government had planned to raze down all old buildings here and build a secretariat in the premises, triggering a public agitation that brought eminent persons to the street.
“M K Stalin, then an MLA, walked into the campus to reassure students and teachers on strike and got arrested on charges of trespassing,” Dr Ravichandran, who took part in the struggle, recalled. “The matter came to an end when the DMK, which was part of the ruling coalition at the Centre, invoked a central rule stipulating special permission for any construction within 500 metres of the coast.”
The foundation stone for Kalaignar Maaligai, which will house the administrative wing, the principal’s office, seminar halls and some classrooms, was laid by Stalin in 2006 after the DMK came to power.