Our History

Raghu Vilas’s two homes – Raghu Niwas and Madho Bhawan were built in 1896 by Lala Raghumal, a Delhi businessman.  He built it as a summer home and imported Italian ceramic tiles, Carrara marble, and Burma teak for the construction.  At that time, there was no road from Dehradun to Mussoorie and the entire material was transported on mules.  In making sure that he didn’t run out of construction material, he overspecified the quantity and when Raghu Niwas was built, there was enough left over to build another house, called Madho Bhawan (named after his father).  Enough time had gone by between the construction of Raghu Niwas and Madho Bhawan that plumbing had come to Indian homes.  So you can see that every bathroom in Raghu Niwas has an outside door that was meant exclusively for the cleaners.  All these doors are blocked from the inside but you can see them from the outside.  Madho Bhawan was built with flush toilets so when Lala Raghumal’s family came to stay, they preferred Madho Bhawan even though Raghu Niwas is clearly the more exotic and elaborate property.  Of course, over time, all the bathrooms have been modernised in an attempt to retain the old-world charm and authenticity of the place.  Lala Raghumal had only one daughter, Angira who was married to Lala Hansraj Gupta in 1914, who later went on to become the Mayor of Delhi in the 1970s. 

 The house was then rented out as a sanatorium and after that to the Swedish embassy for a school.  The Swedes installed the plumbing in Raghu Niwas.  When they left in the 1960s, the Gupta family – Mr. and Mrs. Gupta with their 6 children and the steadily expanding family of daughters-in-law and grandchildren, finally started spending their summer holidays in Raghu Niwas.  Raghu Niwas was opened up as a hotel only as recently as 2017. 

 There are many parts of the houses that are still original.  The roof of both houses is the original 6 mm gauge steel that is simply not available anymore for roofing purposes.  The tiles on the floor on the first floor in Raghu Niwas and the colourful tiles through the house are original too.  The roof, doors, and most of the windows are still the original Burma teak.  Just look up at the ceiling in the ground floor open verandah in Raghu Niwas and see the beautiful wooden ceiling.

 In Madho Bhawan, the coloured tiled flooring on the first floor is cement tiles but of such beautiful craftsmanship that you cannot believe it is over 100 years old.  The windows are also old but they are now leaking and are slowly being replaced.   The glazed verandah is linked to the roof in such a perfect way that there is no way any architect will risk touching it because they are not sure they will be able to replicate the engineering.  Madho Bhawan was converted to a hotel in the early 2000’s after many years of being leased out as a guest house for a public sector undertaking. 

The Gupta family, which continues to own these houses, lived as a joint family on 20 Barakhamba Road till the 1960s.  And even after they moved into separate homes, summer holidays continued to be spent together till the 1980s.  Over time, Mussoorie ceased to be fashionable but since the renovation in 2017, the family has started to come back.  Lala Hansraj Gupta’s grandchildren now have children and grandchildren of their own and these houses give them an experience of what living in a joint family must have been like.  At Raghu Vilas, we hope that you feel warmth when you go into these houses, seeped into the walls after years and years of family fun and laughter that these houses have been witness to.