The American Center or the former United States Chancery are currently used as the offices of

USAid The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

, Sri Lanka. The building is located on Galle Road,

History

The building was originally built by

J. H. Meedeniya Meedeniye Rajakaruna Senanayaka Panditha Herath Wasala Kupuppu Mudiyanse Ralahamillage Punchi Banda John Henry Meedeniya (''known as J. H. Meedeniya Adigar '') (1867 - 1931) was a Ceylonese legislator and a headmen. He was the Kandyan Sinhalese m ...

Adigar The Mahâ Adigâr ( si, මහා අධිකාරම්) (also known as Adikārama, Adikār) was a Great Officer in the Amātya Mandalaya, or Sinhalese Council of State, in the Sinhalese Kingdoms of monarchical Sri Lanka. The office was sec ...

, which he named ''Rickman House''. It was the home of

D. R. Wijewardena Don Richard Wijewardena ( Sinhala:දොන් රිච්ඩ් විජෙවර්ධන) (23 February 1886 – 13 June 1950) was a Sri Lankan press baron who was involved in the Sri Lankan independence movement. A successful entrepreneur ...

(the founder of the Lake House newspaper group), who married Meedeniya's eldest daughter Alice. The property is relatively unique as its land title, under the original old Dutch deed, extends down to the ocean, only one of a few such cases in Colombo. In 1903 the building was purchased by Wijewardena's mother, Helena, who subsequently demolished the existing residence and rebuilt a new dwelling, ''Sri Ramya''. The new dwelling was designed by Herbert Henry Reid. Wijewardena occupied the residence until her death in 1940. In May 1934, the Indian poet,

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

and the Indian painter, Nandalal Bose, stayed at the house for a fortnight, when Tagore brought a troupe of

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

dancers to Ceylon. In 1951 the building was purchased by the Government of the United States to serve as the chancery of its

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

in Sri Lanka. It functioned in that capacity until the United States Embassy moved to a new premises in 1984 and the building was transferred to USAid, for use as their offices.Re: George Vanderspar
/ref>

References

USAid Sri Lanka
{{Diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka Diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka Diplomatic missions of the United States Diplomatic residences in Colombo Sri Lanka–United States relations British colonial architecture in Sri Lanka Wijewardena family

History

See also

References