McBurney YMCA

1852 - present

The McBurney branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) originated as the Greater New York Association Headquarters in 1852. The YMCA was founded to promote religious values alongside physical and intellectual growth, and began with a library, gym, and dormitory. By the end of the nineteenth century, new YMCA branches started to open around the city, and the headquarters became the Twenty-Third Street branch. In 1904 it moved west to Chelsea, quickly integrating into the neighborhood and expanding programming to offer boys clubs, athletics, and classes in languages, business, art, and bible. A number of educational institutes began at the Twenty-Third Street branch and later found homes in other branches around the city, such as the Chelsea School, a college preparatory program that later merged with the McBurney School at the West Side YMCA, an evening high school for returned World War I veterans, the New York Business Institute, and the New York Law School. In 1933 the YMCA constitution changed to allow women full membership, though some women had already been joining classes and activities. In 1943 the branch was renamed for Robert McBurney, one of the early directors of the association. In the second half of the twentieth century, the McBurney YMCA began to focus more on its youth programming, adding afterschool programs, camps, a teen center, and a wider range of recreational and educational activities. In 2004 it moved to a new building on 14th Street.

McBurney YMCA
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Details

Category
Organization/Association
Audience
All Ages
Corporate Body
YMCA of Greater New York
Notes
From 1869-1904 the Association headquarters and Twenty-Third Street branch was located on East 23rd Street in a large ornate building that is believed to be the first purpose-built YMCA space in the country

Connections

Location

  • 215 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011, USA
    1904 - 2004
  • 48-98 E 23rd St, New York, NY 10010, USA
    1869 - 1904
  • 657 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, USA
    1852 - 1869

Archival Collections

References

  1. Bayless, Pamela. The YMCA at 150: A History of the YMCA of Greater New York, 1852-2002. New York: YMCA of Greater New York, 2002.
  2. The Encyclopedia of New York City, 2nd ed. Ed. Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
  3. Federal Writers’ Project. New York City Guide: A Comprehensive Guide to the Five Boroughs of the Metropolis. New York: Random House, 1939.
  4. Finnegan, Dorothy E. “Raising and Leveling the Bar: Standards, Access, and the YMCA Evening Law Schools, 1890-1940.” Journal of Legal Education 55, no. 1/2 (2005): 208-33. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42893900.
  5. Lupkin, Paula. Manhood Factories: YMCA Architecture and the Making of Modern Urban Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. Accessed April 20, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central.