The hotel is considered to have spearheaded the introduction of modern technology in India.

[1] Giacomo D'Angelis, a Corsican confectioner arrived in India in 1880 and set up Maison Francaise in Mount Road in the same year.

D'Angelis described Maison Francaise as a "manufacturing confectioner, glacie & C., general purveyor and mess contractor".

[3] The hotel was the first in Madras to have an electric lift, hot water taps, electric fans, imported tiles, ice-making plant and cold storage.

The hotel was later sold to the Madras-based Bosotto Brothers bakeries company.