The hotel stands on a site which was part of the residential quarters of the first French Governors of Pondicherry. François Martin, the first French Governor of modern Pondicherry, resided in the site since 1701. He wassucceeded by other French Governorslike Pierre Dulivier (1707-1708, 1712-1717), Guillaume André d’Hébert (1708-1712, 1717-1719), Pierre André Prévost de la Prévostière ((1718-1721), Pierre Christophe Le Noir (1721-1723, 1726-1734), Joseph Beauvollier de Courchant (1718-1721), Pierre Benoit Dumas (1734-1740) and the flamboyant Joseph François Dupleix (1742-1754)

In 1752, Dupleix shifted his residence to the palace built in what is now Bharati Park. This palace along with all the buildings of the White town were razed to the ground by the English in 1761. The present hotel building and the adjoining areas were rebuilt after the French recovered Pondicherry from the English in 1765. The hotel building has been largely rebuilt according to French colonial architecture. It is about 250 years old. The French had continuously possessed this site, when in the beginning of the 20th century an Indian entrepreneur by the name of SavericanProuchandy bought this building in a public auction, when the French were still ruling Pondicherry.