New York Estonian Theater

The four-story Beaux-Arts building you are approaching at 243 East 34th Street began its life in 1899 as the Civic Club. It was established by social reformer F. Norton Goddard specifically to combat the prevalence of gambling and poverty in this part of Manhattan. The club served as a meeting place for progressive thinkers who wanted to influence local politics, but it eventually shuttered following the founder's death in 1905. The building stayed in the Goddard family for decades until the New York Estonian Educational Society purchased it in 1946 for twenty-five thousand dollars. This transition turned the former reform-era social club into the primary cultural center for the Estonian diaspora on the United States Eastern Seaboard.