Tag of honour for Delhi’s Roosevelt House

Washington: The historic Roosevelt House, official residence of the US ambassador to India in New Delhi, has been designated as a culturally significant property by US secretary of state John Kerry.

Roosevelt House, along with six other American diplomatic buildings across the globe, has been added to the list of secretary of state’s register of culturally significant property.

Started in 2000 as a White House Millennium Project, the Register includes 33 US government properties and is an honorific listing of important diplomatic buildings overseas that figure prominently in the country’s international heritage.

The US Embassy — located in the diplomatic enclave of New Delhi — is already included in the Register.

In addition to Roosevelt House, other United States buildings added to the list are the Consular Academy, the Chancery at the US embassy in Vienna, Austria; US Chancery in Budapest, Hungary; ambassador’s residence in Helsinki, Finland; The Palazzo Corpi in Istanbul, Turkey; Roosevelt House, the US Chief of Mission Residence in Curaçao, Dutch Caribbean; and Villa Montfeld, the US Chief of Mission Residence, in Algiers, Algeria. Built in 1950s and the first major embassy building project approved during the administration of President Dwight D Eisenhower (1953-1961), Roosevelt House was designed by master architect Edward Durell Stone, who captured history and fantasy in a memorable symbol of the US’ commitment to India after its independence. Described as a tour de force and appearing in the popular press and many architectural journals, the New Delhi Chancery together with Stone’s other large portfolio of work had a major impact upon architectural education during the 1950s.

Frank Lloyd Wright, a veteran American architect, had once said that the United States embassy in New Delhi is the only embassy to do credit to the US and opined it should be called the “Taj Maria” to give credit to Stone’s wife and muse.