The hotel stands on a site which was part of the residential quarters of the first French Governors of Pondicherry. François Martin, the first French Governor of modern Pondicherry, resided in the site since 1701. He wassucceeded by other French Governorslike Pierre Dulivier (1707-1708, 1712-1717), Guillaume André d’Hébert (1708-1712, 1717-1719), Pierre André Prévost de la Prévostière ((1718-1721), Pierre Christophe Le Noir (1721-1723, 1726-1734), Joseph Beauvollier de Courchant (1718-1721), Pierre Benoit Dumas (1734-1740) and the flamboyant Joseph François Dupleix (1742-1754)
In 1752, Dupleix shifted his residence to the palace built in what is now Bharati Park. This palace along with all the buildings of the White town were razed to the ground by the English in 1761. The present hotel building and the adjoining areas were rebuilt after the French recovered Pondicherry from the English in 1765. The hotel building has been largely rebuilt according to French colonial architecture. It is about 250 years old. The French had continuously possessed this site, when in the beginning of the 20th century an Indian entrepreneur by the name of SavericanProuchandy bought this building in a public auction, when the French were still ruling Pondicherry.
Netaji-Prouchandy Memorial and Bookshop has been established in order to commemorate the memory of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his close associate Leon Prouchandy of Pondicherry.
When Netaji arrived in south-east Asia/ Saigon, Prouchandy welcomed him by garlanding him with a gold necklace. Thenceforth Prouchandy became an associate of Netaji in Vietnam. He financed the netaji freedom movement in Saigon. He gave his mansion situated at 76, haiBhaTrung road to the movement free of rent. The Secretariat of the Indian Independence League functioned from there.
In March 1945, Prouchandy was nominated to the Executive Council of the I.I.L. In August 1945, Prouchandy became its last General Secretary in Saigon. Bose disappeared on 18th August after meeting Prouchandy. Prouchandy was arrested in September 1945 and was kept in custody for more than three months by the Allied soldiers. He lost his memory then due to torture and returned to India in an amnesic state and lived in Pondicherry, his home town at No. 5, Nehru Street, Pondicherry in 1968
It is in memory of both, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Leon Prouchandy that this Memorial and Bookshop has been founded at No.5, J.N. street, Pondicherry.