The Prospect Park YMCA, located at 357 9th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Brooklyn, has been serving Brooklyn since the late 19th century. A feature of the Park Slope neighborhood, the Prospect Park YMCA began its operations in a converted mansion in 1891. By 1923, the huge population growth in Brooklyn placed demands on the YMCA which made its building hopelessly inadequate. The branch was closed, making way for an ambitious building campaign. On July 7, 1925, ground was broken on the Prospect Park Y's present site, and 18 months later, the current building was opened. In the spring of 2000, an $8.5 million renovation left practically no corner untouched. The facade was restored, the old lobby was replaced and all program spaces were transformed.
The Prospect Park YMCA has a long-standing commitment to housing programs and today offers affordable housing for retired sailors, echoing the work of the Bethelship Seaman's Branch that operated on the corner of Richards and Sullivan streets between 1921 and 1948. The branch also maintains a tradition of linkages with community groups such as literary societies, book clubs, and dance groups. The branch has offered literacy classes, job search training, and day camp programs for many years. The branch operated what it called an "outpost" in the Bay Ridge neighborhood and continued this work through the late 1960s.
(Information taken from
Black and white photographs and snapshots of events, people and activities at the Prospect Park branch of the YMCA of Greater New York.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
Building.
Events.
People.
Programs and activities.
This collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright, ownership, and to obtain all the necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials.
Processed by: Louise Merriam, April 2009.
Catalog Record ID number: 5462659
The following section contains a detailed list of the materials in the collection. To request materials, please note the corresponding box number.
Includes photos with and without people of the locker room, boys club room, parlor with fireplace, massage room, infirmary, shower room, drying room, boys game room, dorm room, barber shop, registration desk, dining room, kitchen, reading room, display of Indian artifacts.
Includes opening of children's playground, men performing in drag, laying of cornerstone, ground-breaking, unfurling of the service flag (November 17, 1942), speech by Dorothy Bagnall, dances, Hi-Y, Old Timers dinner, YMCA Membership Month, fair, public meeting, Christmas party, Gay 90s party, raffle, Dial-a-Y phonathon, finance campaigns (1943, 1960-1963), Ft. Hamilton Family Night, bundles to soldiers, gym team clowns performing, military and police events, poster listing activities, piano trio concert, circus, open house, parade, ballet performance, Miss YMCA.
Includes portraits of board members, members and staff, Booster Club, board meetings, dances, Hi-Steppers, Phalanx Club, parties, people in the reading room, dinners, awards, Leaders Club, sunbathing on the roof, miscellaneous groups, boys with model planes, performance of Hamlet.
Includes images of youth and adult athletic activities, including gymnastics, trampoline, baseball, weight-lifting, aquatics, running, basketball, handball, sunbathing, boxing, tennis, judo, archery, fencing, rowing, target shooting, track.
Includes images of Halloween party, machine shop, outings to park and countryside, races, trip on the Staten Island ferry, pie eating contest, bobbing for apples, playing with a model train, tug of war, playing with a scale replica sailboat, gymnastics, club advisory committee, Christmas party, Bay Ridge branch day camp, visit to airfield, ping-pong, choir performing at the Port Authority, man on stilts, model car, Fort Hamilton Summer Fun Club visit to the post office, playing chess, swimming.
Includes images of men singing, servicemen playing ping-pong
with women, demonstrating bandaging technique, letter-writing, civil defense,
bowling,
Records of the Prospect Park YMCA are separately cataloged at the
Kautz Family YMCA Archives
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.