Vedanta Society of New York

34 West 71st Street | Lincoln Square | built 1887

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1887

    John H. Duncan designs five rowhouses at 32-40 West 71st Street for developer Cornelius Luyster

    The building at 34 West 71st Street began in 1887 as one of five matching rowhouses at 32 through 40, designed by John H. Duncan for the developer Cornelius W. Luyster. The houses rose four stories above a raised basement, faced in brick and stone, in a Renaissance Revival style with Romanesque Revival touches. The Vedanta Society acquired the house in 1921.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1921

    After about ten earlier homes, the Vedanta Society settles at 34 West 71st Street

    The society kept moving for its first quarter century. By its own tracing, it occupied 228 West 39th Street, 509 Fifth Avenue, two addresses on Lexington Avenue, East 55th and East 58th Streets, 62 West 71st Street in 1905-06, West 80th Street and 236 Central Park West before acquiring 34 West 71st Street in 1921. It has been there ever since.

    Source: vedantany.org

  3. 1950

    May 19

    Swami Bodhananda, head of the society since 1912, dies at 79

    Swami Bodhananda reached New York in 1906 and became head of the Vedanta Society in 1912. In 1921, during his tenure, the society took over the building at 34 West 71st Street that remains its home. He stayed with the society until the end of his life and died on May 19, 1950, at age 79.

    Source: vedantany.org

  4. 1951

    February

    Swami Pavitrananda arrives to lead the society and serves for 26 years

    Swami Pavitrananda arrived in New York in February 1951 to take charge after Bodhananda's death and led the society until he died in 1977. Under him the week followed a steady pattern: public lectures on Sundays, question-and-answer classes on Tuesday nights, and library sessions on other evenings that were meant mainly for members. He wrote several books on Vedanta, including Common Sense about Yoga.

    Source: vedantany.org

  5. 1977

    November

    Swami Tathagatananda becomes minister and serves for nearly four decades

    Swami Tathagatananda came to the society in February 1977 as assistant minister. When Swami Pavitrananda died that November he became minister, and he served the society for nearly four decades until his death on June 25, 2016. He wrote scholarly books and articles for journals of the Ramakrishna Order.

    Source: vedantany.org

  6. 2017

    January

    Swami Sarvapriyananda becomes minister, and his talks reach a worldwide online audience

    Swami Sarvapriyananda became minister and spiritual leader of the society in January 2017. A monk of the Ramakrishna Math since 1994, he received sannyasa in 2004, and his talks on Vedanta are widely watched online. He has spoken at TEDx and Google Talks, at universities including Harvard, and at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

    Source: vedantany.org

Further reading

Nearby

All 48 buildings with stories in Lincoln Square