BAKER HOME - 1.5 km. English architect Laurence Wilfred Baker (Laurie Baker), internationally known for his penchant for low cost housing and appropriate technology for the poor, chose to settle down in Vagamon when he moved to the South from the Himalayas in 1963. With him came his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Baker, born in Kottayam. Initially they were housed in a tea factory building but the Kurisumala Ashram helped them to buy their own place where Laurie built a small and beautiful two-storey house with six bed rooms and named it Mitraniketan. The house looked like Swiss chalet with drooping roof. Laurie also a built a much needed hospital near his home. They remained in Vagamon till 1968 before moving to Trivandrum, where he died in April 2007 at the age of 90.