Notes from the Y.M.C.A Dedication

The YMCA was originally in a building at 8th and Madison. but opened their building at Pike and Madison on Thursday, January  30, 1913.  There were dedication events that Thursday as well as Friday and Saturday.

It had a dormitory of 39 homelike, clean, steam-heated rooms, completely furnished on the third floor; a men and boy's department, “entirely separate in every respect;” the main floor of the gymnasium held apparatus (“parallel bars, bucks, horses, dumb-bell machines, and exercisers);” half a story above the gymnasium, around the perimeter was a running track, 24 laps to the mile, and banked at the corners for maximum constant speed; a white tile and marble swimming pool, 60 by 21 feet, running from four feet to 9 feet in depth with a special filtering system; a smoking room; a correspondence room; a billiards room; a vacuum cleaning system throughout the building; and a main lobby with a large fireplace that can be divided into smaller rooms for separate meetings.

The Times Star reported that membership on opening day was 400 persons, but 1000 were projected by the end of the year.