Located within the limits of the Nuwara Eliya Municipal Council along the Queen Elizabeth Drive, it is a protected monument under the Antiquities Ordinance.

Built as an English country house in 1893 by the British Colonial administration of the island as the summer residence for the Governor of Ceylon, Sir William Henry Gregory.

[4] It was frequented by subsequent Governors and their guests between January and May to escape the tropical heat of Colombo in Little England as Nuwara Eliya was known.

Since independence in 1948 the house became the official vacationing residence of the Governor General of Ceylon and since 1972 the President after Sri Lanka became a republic.

It was formally recognised and declared a ‘Protected Monument’, under the Antiquities Ordinance (Chapter 188), by the Minister of Cultural Affairs and National Heritage on 23 February 2007.