British-era bunker found at city college

James Hall, where the bunker was discovered in the basement, was constructed in 1912

Principal of The American College in Madurai M. Davamani Christober at the British-era bunker discovered on the college premises. | Photo Credit: G. Moorthy

A British-era bunker has been discovered on The American College premises here. The college administration has been using the basement structure of James Hall, the science block, as a store room to dump broken furniture for the last four decades.

College Principal M. Davamani Christober, who joined the college in 1995, said no one knew about the bunker till recently. The basement had been virtually left unused for the last several years, he said.

It was when the college administration went on a cleaning drive on the premises during the pandemic break that the Principal found something unusual in the basement structure.

“When I found that strong iron girders had been used for the basement, I got curious and started to know more about it,” he said.

James Hall was constructed in 1912 by American missionaries. In those days, there was a practice to construct bunkers under any highrise building.

The bunker, measuring around 100 feet x 45 feet with a height of 9.5 ft. has  one entry and three exits, suggesting that the basement could have been constructed to provide safe refuge during difficult times and safe exit through more than one ways. 

New Castle in London that had supplied steel for construction of Pamban Rail Bridge had manufactured the steel girder, he added.

Stating that the college had plans to convert the bunker into a museum for public viewing, Mr. Christober said rare collections in possession of the college like century-old manuscripts, currency notes and coins would be displayed there. The museum would be inaugurated soon, he added.