YMCA - Corner of Bleecker & Charlotte Streets

The Utica YMCA was established February 10, 1855, in a lecture room of Westminster Church. Officers for the first year were Edward Curran, president; Edward R. Bates, vice-president; Robert S. Williams, corresponding secretary; Edwin L. Swartwout, treasurer; and Clarence Churchill, recording secretary.

For a time the YMCA held gatherings, mostly prayer meetings, in these rooms, but in May, that year, a reading room, sitting room, and hall were obtained in the Tibbitts building. There were then about 200 members. Equipment in the new headquarters consisted of a piano, blackboard, a few chairs, tables, maps, books and magazines.

During the Civil War there wasn't much interest locally in the YMCA movement. It was about 1883 that, with Glen K. Shurtleff as general secretary, the movement suddenly sprang into life and rooms were obtained in the Arcade building.

There was a campaign, led by leading men of various churches, to acquaint the public with the needs of its young men - the need of a commodious place where they could "spread out," come and go as they liked, go in for gymnasium work under trained teachers, participate in sports, form groups and clubs for various hobbies and play games.

The drive was tremendously successful and on November 1, 1889, the YMCA proudly moved into its own building at Bleecker and Charlotte, built at a cost of $105,000, where the Bleecker Street Baptist Church long had stood. History records that the church building, which was torn down to clear a site for the Young Men's Christian Association building was "the most famous in our city." For almost two decades after it was built in 1825 on the outskirts of the village, it was used by the Second Presbyterian Church. In 1844 Westminster Presbyterian society occupied the building. In 1845 the Bleecker Street Baptist Church rented it, bought it in 1847 and occupied it for 43 years, until the spring of 1888.

At the opening on Bleecker Street, Russell H. Wicks spoke for the local YMCA and State Secretary George Hall spoke on behalf of the 151 similar associations in New York State. The four and one-half story structure, crowned by a turret-like tower, became the hub of young men's activities in the heart of the Busy Corner business section. Less than 18 years later, on the night of March 1, 1907, the handsome structure was destroyed by fire, one of Utica's costliest. The disastrous fire, which com­pletely leveled the YMCA, was one in which it seemed the entire city would go up in flames.

One who remembers that night very well is Charles A. Miller, local businessman and a past president of the Rotary Club. At the time, Miller was a fledgling reporter for the Utica Daily Press and had just sent the final bit of copy to the composing room on a three-alarm fire which had engulfed several buildings along Bleecker Street opposite the Hotel Martin ( the Mosher block fire ). When the fire alarm in the city room sounded a second time he decided that the Mosher fire had started anew and so left the office to see what was doing.

YMCA Washington Street

Miller recalls that as he crossed the John Street Bridge over the Erie Canal he saw flames shooting through the roof of the Y. The fire had gained such headway that by the time he reached the scene, the roof had caved in. "A little later, as I stood in the doorway of Casey's Saloon, opposite the "Y" building, the front wall fell outward partially burying a fire truck and a brick flew across the street directly over my head and through one of Casey's windows," says Miller.

After the fire destroyed the Utica YMCA building officials purchased a building at 726 Washington Street, former home of an outstanding private girls school, to use as a temporary headquarters. It remained a "temporary" headquarters for nearly 50 years. It was built in 1871 to house the Utica Female Academy and, later, the Balliol School, a seminary for young ladies.

At a time when girls' finishing schools were in vogue, the Balliol School under the direction of a Miss Piatt was considered one of the finest in the state. Girls came from Oneonta, Oswego, Syracuse and some from even greater distances to gain polish under the watchful eye of the French director.

Few were the boys who ever saw the inside of Balliol build­ing until it was changed from girls' school to Young Men's Christian Association. And yet the structure was better than any other building at the time for the transition since it in­cluded a gymnasium, small swimming pool, dormitory 'rooms and class rooms which were in turn made into club rooms.

YMCA Washington Street c1960s

In the early 1940s, a fundraising drive began to build a new YMCA to replace the crumbling and over-crowed Washington Street building. Facilities for a physical education department were completed in 1951 and, in 1956, demolition of the "temporary" building began.

In 1958 - on the Utica YMCA's 100th birthday - the final $900,000 section of the $2 million project ( facing Genesee Street ) was dedicated. For the next 43 years, this building provided facilities to thousands of young men and boys in the area. In 2001, the Utica WMCA closed it's doors for the last time.