This study examines the building of three nineteenth‐century structures in the city of Trivandrum, capital of the erstwhile kingdom of Travancore, a ‘Native State’ of colonial India. Created in three distinct styles, all were erected during the reign of Maharaja Ayilyam Thirunal (1860–80), and were part of a process of transformative change in the capital and the kingdom at this time. The paper argues that a nascent public sphere first began to take shape in this kingdom during this period, facilitated in part by these projects and the processes they involved. In giving form for the first time to a capital designed not simply or solely for royal display but instead intended to provide for needs that would reshape both the kingdom and its subjects, these projects helped to develop the notion of a civil society in Travancore.