Vivekanandar Illam

Vivekanandar Illam is a historic building in Chennai that faces the Bay of Bengal. Frederic Tudor put it up in 1842 as a store for ice, and it was long known as the Ice House. When the ice trade failed in 1880, Biligiri Iyengar, an advocate of the Madras High Court, bought the building, remodelled it and called it Castle Kernan after a judge who was his friend.

Swami Vivekananda stayed here from 6 to 14 February 1897 during his visit to Madras, and the Ramakrishna Math worked from the building until 1906. The Government of Madras acquired it in 1914, after which it housed a hostel and training school run by R. S. Subbalakshmi. In 1963, the centenary of Vivekananda's birth, the state government renamed it Vivekanandar Illam, 'Vivekananda House'. Since 1997 it has been leased to the Ramakrishna Math, which runs an exhibition on the Swami's life.