The grand building at PMG junction that hints at Travancore’s rich past has been home to several new ventures of the erstwhile kingdom that are now the hallmarks of the city. It was in the building that Travancore’s first engineering college was housed after being started by Sri Chithira Tirunal in 1939. The college was shifted from the building in 1961 and now stands on a sprawling campus at Sreekaryam as the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.
Constructed in 1895 during the reign of Sree Moolam Tirunal, the PMG office was also the office of the chief engineer of Travancore. In 1933-34, an air training complex of the Government of India was established here.
Now, the office of the Post Master General, Thiruvananthapuram, functions in the building, which is owned by the Government of India. The two-storey structure is a blend of vernacular Kerala and European architectural styles. The entire structure has been constructed with exposed brick and lime mortar. The building is symmetrical, a simple rectangle with four tower blocks in four corners and a central tower block with a round clock embedded in it. The towers have a steep tiled roof, with a gabled roof profile in the centre of each tower. The top floor has a tiled roof with with flat fish-scale tiles.
The brick-coloured building’s lower floor has segmental arches over the windows and semi-circular stone arches on all openings on the first floor. The corner of the building is dressed and finished with granite stones. Even the window sills have been finished with small granite blocks.
