18th century George Everest house gets facelift, thrown open to public
MUSSOORIE: Around 8km from Mussoorie is the George Everest peak, atop which is the 18th century house of George Everest, the man after whom Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world is named — although he likely never set eyes on it. It is in this house that Everest, then the Surveyor General of India lived between 1832 and 1843, when he returned to England.
For years, the house lay locked and dilapidated (it was under the management and ownership of the Archaeological Society of India). On Tuesday, Uttarakhand tourism minister Satpal Maharaj dedicated the restored iconic heritage house of George Everest, a cartographic museum and an observatory at Park Estate in Mussoorie to the public.
Gopal Bhardwaj, a local historian who received a plaque from the tourism minister for his research work on the area, said: “The George Everest House was built in 1832 but later became dilapidated. When tourism minister Satpal Maharaj was requested in 2017 to restore the house, he readily agreed, and today we see it in a new avatar.”
The location of the house is strategic and it was used as an observatory to view mountains that demarcated the boundaries of British India.
It does not provide a view of Mount Everest though. Mount Everest was mapped by the British only in the 1850s and named after George Everest in 1856 — in honour of the fact that he completed what is called the Great Trigonometric Survey of the Subcontinent. He was succeeded by Andrew Waugh; Radhanath Sikdar a so-called “computer” for the Geological Survey of
India, was the first person to measure Mount Everest’s height, and many people believe the world’s highest peak should have been named after him.
It is reported that George Everest himself protested when it was suggested that the newly discovered mountain the world’s tallest, be named after him, but that he was overruled.
Maharaj said, “The project has been completed with an estimated cost of around ₹23 crores with an objective to attract tourists. Once the cartography museum is fully equipped, the descendants of Sir George Everest will be invited.”