Built in the 1870â??s as a circuit Bungalow for British Government Agents (GA), with the first British GA occupant being with Mr. W. Harington, the Polonnaruwa Rest House was carefully refurbished in the style of the early 1950â??s, whilst retaining its colonial charm, after been taken over by the then Ceylon Tourist Bureau in 1954 and thereafter by Ceylon Hotels Corporation (CHC) in 1968..