Under the British Empire most of the buildings were of European architecture. The most famous example being the Collectorate Building, which was constructed between 1865 and 1914 by the Gyanan and Dunckerly Company. A magnificent symmetrical stone E-shaped structure with pyramidal roofs, two courtyards, and a central buttressed porch with semicircular arch openings. The porch has a huge circular buttress on one side,  with a spiral staircase inside it. There is an elegant looking central bay window above the arch opening of the porch. The roof of the ground floor is supported on wooden rafters resting on steel I-sections, which were brought from England. Some part of the first floor corridor has a stone balustrade and the remaining part is made of wood.