Young Men's Institute
1885 - present
The Young Men's Institute building was founded in 1885 by a group of progressive leaders in the Lower East Side to provide support for young men between the ages of 17 and 35. Contemporary observers such as Jacob Riis had estimated that there were thousands of homeless young men routinely hanging around that section of the Bowery in the 1880s. The Young Men's Institute sought to nourish the minds and bodies of young men in order to help them lift themselves out of poverty. According to The New York Times, the institute provided hundreds of books, rooms with big tables for writing, showers and bathtubs, a gymnasium stocked with weights and exercise equipment, a theatre for lectures, rooms for socializing and rooms for holding classes in penmanship, architecture and various trades. The Times noted that the Institute planned 24 lectures over the course of the winter of 1885-1886. It cost $4 to join the Young Men's Institute or $3 for a membership only to the gym. The Young Men's Institute was an early iteration of the YMCA.
Details
- Category
- Organization/Association
- Instructional Level
- Trade/Industrial
- Audience
- All Ages
- Founder(s)
- Cleveland Dodge
- Corporate Body
- YMCA
- Tags
- continuingeducation, socialwelfare, recreation, vocationaleducation
- Notes
- The Young Men's Institute was actually an early location of the YMCA. The organization sold the building at 222 Bowery in 1934, but expanded throughout New York City and the United States throughout the 20th century.
Location
-
222 Bowery, New York, NY 10012, USA1885 - 1932
Archival Collections
-
1875 - ?at New York Public LibrarySites of Teaching & Learning 7
References
-
The Young Men's Institute: A New and Attractive Resort In the Bowery. (1885, October 16). The New York Times.