When the building was built is not very clear, but Binny’s, its origins in 1799/1800, has been on this site since 1804. It bought a house and grounds here then for 10,000 pagodas (about ₹ 35,000 at the time). All this did not include John Binny’s private residence where the Imperial/ later Connemara Hotel came up. A vast garden here with a magnificent house called Waterton, added substantially to Binny’s holdings. Sheriff, who retired in 1889, was remembered in the Mohideen Sheriff Memorial Prize (value ₹38 ½) given to the best “Muhammadan student in Madras Medical College” in Materia Medica and Therapeutics.

Source: The Hindu October 23, 2017 11:26 UTC