Shimla was a nondescript hamlet with shepherd hutments that became a flourishing town with palatial bungalows and hotels. Capturing this journey is a coffee table book, with rare photographs of imperial buildings and stories of eminent personalities and events in the last 188 years.
'In 1822, the first house was built in Shimla, then a village, and it took another almost 44 years when this number grew to 290,' says the book, 'Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta Hai' - literally meaning 'every house tells a story'.
'Till 1841, there were only 100 houses. The population in 1881 was only 13,258 that increased to 4,803 Europeans and 38,539 Indians in 1921,' says the book unveiled by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.
The book brought out by the Himachal Pradesh tourism department says the first house built by a European in 1822 was Kennedy House, which was the residence of Charles Pratt Kennedy, the newly-appointed political officer to the hill states.
It was located at the site where the parking lot of the state legislative assembly is now.
Full report here Sify
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