CHENNAI: The American Center Chennai, housed inside the US Consulate building, has a special corner dedicated to famed city-based historian S Muthiah, according to US Consul General-Chennai Judith Ravin.
This information came as the US Consulate launched its Madras Week celebrations with a virtual tour titled ‘America in Chennai - Sites, Streets, Structures’, organised by the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) in collaboration with the University of Madras. It must be remembered that historian Muthiah was one of the founders of Madras Day.
Ravin joined Indian Fulbright-Nehru alumnus Professor Suresh Sethuraman on the virtual tour. During his anecdote-filled lecture, Sethuraman, an archeologist and architectural historian, shared unusual and fascinating facts about Chennai’s historic links to America. Sethuraman said: “Chennai boasts of several sites and streets that have strong America connections — the St Mary’s Church within Fort St George where Elihu Yale of Yale University fame got married in 1680, the Ice House on Kamarajar Salai where ice from Massachusetts was stored in the 19th century and the YMCA building opposite the Madras High Court built with US financial aid in 1900, to name a few.”