Paliam Nalukettu

This classical structure was built by the elder member of the family in the year 1786, for the women and minor boys of Paliam. It has a big courtyard at the centre with rooms surrounding it and Purathalam, where the members gathered to chat and for recreational activities. There used to be a common dining hall and a common kitchen as all the members lived and dined together, under the protection of Valiachan. The boys, when they became majors, had separate bachelor living quarters and after their marriage, the administration provided them houses. This style of 'community living' continued till the partition of the join family.The last members left the Nalukettu after the family partition deed, and so the building is no longer occupied.

The Nalukettu is a typical self-contained Malayali house, a quadrangle building consisting of four blocks, with a rectangular courtyard in the centre known as the "nadumittam". The western block or "padinjattini" is divided into three rooms the middle one of which is the private strong room or "ara" where all the valuables and house hold deities are kept. The north east block or "vadakkini" is divided into two parts, the kitchen and the dining room. The other rooms in the north quarter houses general rooms. The whole or the middle portions of the eastern and southern blocks"kizhakkini and tekkini" are open halls where guests are received, the same on the upper floors consist of bedrooms for the women, where they are met by their husbands occasionally in the night.