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History of the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh
For 150 years, the YMCA of Pittsburgh has been writing its story across the Pittsburgh region through its service to the community. William E. Hunt, a young seminary student, who arrived in Pittsburgh during a cholera outbreak, witnessed a town with rough river men, factory workers and a steady flow of strangers looking for work. He felt certain that the little-known YMCA organization would serve a great need in this bustling industrial city. Joined by Robert Christy Totten, S.S. Bryan, and Samuel T. Lowrie, Hunt organized the first meeting of the YMCA of Pittsburgh on March 16, 1854. Thirty young men were in attendance that day at the Second Presbyterian Church, and all voted unanimously to form an association. In the first few years, prayer meetings and classes were organized, food and clothing drives embarked upon and a soup kitchen established. During the Civil War, YMCA members provided clothing, medical and additional supplies to the front lines and provided more than 400,000 meals to soldiers passing through the city. Carrying on work in plants during the industrial years of Pittsburgh, operating canteens at every railroad station for soldiers in transport during WWI, participating in the justice system in the early 1900’s when Juvenile Court paroled young boys into the care of the YMCA and establishing special funds to provide membership for the jobless during the Great Depression are examples of the many programs initiated by the YMCA over the years to meet the needs of the Pittsburgh community. When food shortages appeared imminent because of a lack of labor on farms during the First World War, John Hill, director of the Pittsburgh YMCA, developed a farm service program that recruited boys from high schools in Allegheny County to work on farms – Washington’s U.S. Boys Working Reserve was patterned after it.
In 1893, the first colored branch of the YMCA was opened on Wylie Avenue – when this facility was relocated to Centre Avenue more than 8,000 people attended the cornerstone laying. The Centre Avenue Y was the very first building in Pittsburgh to provide social and recreational services to African Americans and is considered the birthplace of practically every welfare agency for African Americans including the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The 1920s through the 1950s was a period of great activity at the Centre Street Y. It was one of the sole recreational facilities for African Americans in Pittsburgh. Thousands found refuge here from the University of Pittsburgh students who were not allowed to reside on campus to world-renowned artists and performers. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, free symposiums were held at the Centre Avenue branch featuring speakers such as Marian Anderson, Adam Clayton Powell and Dr. George Washington Carver. Audiences came from as far as Ohio and West Virginia. In 1948, Lawrence Van Kirk, president of the Association, formulated an interracial policy stating that “any person nine years of age or over may be admitted to the general membership irrespective of race or religion.”
In the years that have followed, the YMCA has continued to respond to the needs of our community: beginning structured child care services in the 1960s as more and more women joined the work force; developing programs such as the Adventure Guides, to strengthen the relationships between children and their parents; providing camps for children of all abilities to learn about the great outdoors; establishing teen and after school programs to ensure that all children regardless of their family’s financial ability can grow up safely; and operating food pantries.
The YMCA story is one of celebration and hope – a celebration of a rich past and the hope for a future filled with the stories of the many individuals in our community whose lives the Y will touch in the future. Through our story we will continue to build strong kids, strong families and strong communities.
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