YMCA of Greater Seattle - Seattle, WA
N 47° 36.338 W 122° 19.962
10T E 550156 N 5272685
The YMCA of Greater Seattle is located in a very historic building on the corner of 4th Ave and Marion St in downtown Seattle, WA.
Waymark Code: WMGCT2
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 02/15/2013
Views: 4
Visitors to the
YMCA of Greater Seattle are welcomed to a wall of glass displays as they enter the lobby, highlighting the wonderful history this building has encompassed over the decades. This YMCA was built in 1930 by architects A.H. Albertson, Joseph W. Wilson and Paul Richardson, whose names are monumented on a wall inside a shelter and in front of the entrance.
The programs this downtown branch offers include:
Adults
» Pool
» Group Wellness
» Pilates Reformer
» Gym & Sports
» Massage Therapy
» Health & Well-being
» Squash/Racquetball Court
Family
» Children's Crisis Outreach Response System
» Family Services and Mental Health
» Pool
» Group Wellness
» Gym & Sports
» Health & Well-Being
» Squash/Racquetball Court
» YMCA Childcare
Seniors
» Pool - Women on Weights
» Group Wellness
» Gym & Sports
» Massage Therapy
» Health & Well-being - Meditation
Teens
» Young Adult Services
» Pool
» Group Wellness
» Gym & Sports
» Health & Well-being
» Squash/Racquetball Court
» Global Teen Leadership Opportunities
Young
» Family Services and Mental Health
» Pool
» Gym & Sports
» YMCA Childcare
» The Y Creates Child-Safe Environments
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One of the nice amenities of membership here is access to a total of 13 YMCA locations in and around Seattle.
I also found a great web link to HistoryLink.org which has a four-part essay on the history of this Central Branch:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
In part four, the history of this YMCA branch in Seattle is best concluded with the following words:
The YMCA today is a mix of the old (swimming, exercise classes, summer camp, sports leagues, crafts); the new (including the Patsy Collins leadership program for middle school girls); and old programs with new names (such as Young Adults in Transition, providing housing and other services for troubled youth). The YMCA is the Earth Service Corps for high school students, pioneered by Metrocenter in 1989 and since adopted by YMCAs throughout the United States. It is Y-Guides for children and their parents, implemented in Seattle in the 1940s as the Y-Indian Guides (recently renamed out of respect for Native American culture). It is youth sports, involving both boys and girls from preschoolers to teens but modeled after the same concept of sportsmanship and ethics that Lippy emphasized as the YMCA's physical education director in the 1890s.
One hundred and twenty five years after it was founded, the YMCA of Greater Seattle is the largest private human services agency in the region, serving more than 154,000 different people through its 15 branches, three residential camps, and programs at more than 200 other sites (including schools, community centers and churches) and an annual budget of more than $41 million.
The organization has succeeded because it has remained flexible. Its leaders no longer debate such issues as whether going to the theater will cost a man his soul. But its admirers also value the ways in which it has not changed. "There are so many people around town who grew up with the Y, in the Y's pools and gyms and basketball courts," says Priscilla "Patsy" Bullitt Collins, a longtime supporter. "In years to come people will be remembering the computer classes they took at the Y. The thing I most appreciate about the Y today is what it does for the development of character and maturity in boys and girls. I hope that in the future, the Y just keeps doing more of the same".