[1][2] The Residency, designed by a British Army engineer, Sir Maurice Cameron, was constructed in 1888.

Fittings and furnishing pushed the overall cost of the mansion to $81,000, and it included a manually-powered Indian punkah in its banquet hall.

As the Resident Councillor was also the chairman of the newly established Penang Botanic Gardens, a garden was created within the compound of The Residency, filled with native and rare species of tropical plants.

After the independence of Malaya in 1957, the position of the governor of Penang was officially renamed in Malay as the Yang di-Pertua Negeri.

Similarly, the residence, now a property of the Penang state government, has been officially renamed as Seri Mutiara, a reflection of Penang's fame as the Pearl of the Orient (Malay: Pulau Mutiara).