Did you know which colonial building in Jamshedpur is made of leftover steel from Howrah Bridge? Or which two houses in the city were designed by Tata Sons former chairman Ratan N Tata.
The glorious past of Steel City has many interesting stories to tell, but its buildings equally have much more than that. They have the countless stories of generations of humans along with their own. Those stories teach us the journey of the steel from a small town to a steel hub and also about the history of the world, the nature of humans, and the cycle of life.
Take the example of Bharucha Mansion or Regal Building, which is a distinctive Raj era structure located in the heart of Bistupur. The building has been built using leftover beams from the Howrah Bridge. Yes it's a heritage building built with beams left over from the famous bridge. The building is an iconic structure associated with the very identity of the city.
Built by Khurshed Maneckji Bharucha in 1935, the first Indian chief cashier at Tata Steel, the structure has a unique polygonal architecture and design.
Under the leadership of architects A. Dinshaw, a Parsi, and C.C. Bayigle, a British, the building was constructed. It took three years to complete the task. Moreover, no cement was used in it.
Take this, more than five decades ago, a young architect armed with a degree from Cornell University, New York, came to work in Jamshedpur and gave the city two of its most elegant buildings.
The man was none other than Tata Sons former chairman Ratan N Tata. And, the buildings are two distinctive ones on Road No. 10, Circuit House (East). Not many residents of the city know that the architect of these two American prairie-style buildings is none other than the great visionary Tata.
One of the owners of the building, Dr T Mukherjee, former deputy managing director of Tata Steel, says, “Yes it is true that the house where I stay 6A Road # 10, CH Area (East) was actually designed by Ratan Tata. I purchased my portion in 2007. I liked the design as it has open spaces, enough light and place to sit out,” he notes.
Recollecting trivia associated with the houses, Mukherjee said that one house belonged to Soli Devitre, then Tata Sons director Jehangir Ghandy’s brother-in-law, and the other to Tata Steel senior executive Cawas Mehta and his wife Perin C. Mehta, who also set up Jamshedpur Women’s College.
Devitre’s house now has two owners, former Tata Steel deputy managing director Dr Mukherjee and a Sakchi-based hotelier. They have kept the original look and feel of the properties. Ratan Tata designed these houses when he joined as a trainee at Tata Motors soon after he returned from USA.
Mukherjee said that Tata had once told him that he had designed a house for his mother and his own beach bungalow at Alibaug, Mumbai, facing the Arabian Sea.
Hotel owner Ronald D’Costa stated, “During the II World WAR, American and British troops lived in the top and bottom floor. The bar on the top witnessed fights between the two groups.
The chairs and tables that survived the fights have been used in the hotel and in the attached Brubeck Bakery. Even today, the exposed bricks bear the family’s initials—DC.
