Hare Krishna Temple (Matchless Gifts)
26 2nd Avenue | East Village | built 1900
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1846
A stable stands on the lot beside the first house, before a second house replaces it
This was an earlier building on the site. The first house on the lot went up between 1841 and 1843, and by 1846 a stable stood beside it. The stable remained until 1850, when a second house, built between 1850 and 1852, took its place. After 1859 two five-story tenements occupied the front and rear of the lot, probably altered from the earlier three-story houses.
- 1906
The front tenement has grown to six stories with two stores at street level
The front building on the lot is a six-story tenement whose sixth floor was added between 1889 and 1906, while two five-story buildings stand behind it. By 1906 two stores occupied the ground floor. The facade still keeps its historic cornice and pilasters around the entrance and the storefront.
- 1947
The ground-floor storefront becomes a launderette
In 1947 the storefront of this six-story tenement was converted into a launderette. Two stores have occupied the first floor of the front building since at least 1906, and after the launderette years the space went back to two separate stores.
- 1966
Prabhupada rents a former curio shop called Matchless Gifts for his first Western temple
In the summer of 1966, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada rented a shop at this address with help from only two followers. It had previously been a curio store called Matchless Gifts. ISKCON was headquartered here from 1966 to 1968, until the growing movement outgrew the space.
Source: centres.iskcon.org
- 1966
Prabhupada incorporates ISKCON while based in a storefront temple here
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada converted a storefront curiosity shop at 26 Second Avenue, which had the name "Matchless Gifts," into a small temple. There he taught classes on the Bhagavad-gita and led group chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra. In July 1966 he incorporated the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1991
ISKCON retakes the original storefront and reopens it for the movement's 25th anniversary
About twenty-five years after the founding, directors of the ISKCON temple in New York regained control of the space and leased it again. For the 25th anniversary of ISKCON's founding, members of the Brooklyn temple renovated the storefront, rededicated it and opened it to the public in July 1991.
Source: centres.iskcon.org
Further reading
- International Society for Krishna ConsciousnessWikipedia
- 26 Second AvenueVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
- The most holy tree in Tompkins Square ParkEphemeral New York
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