Supporting Working Women: YWCA Buildings in the National Register of Historic Places

Antoinette J. Lee

YWCAs eased the transition of women from rural areas to the cities, from home to the world of work, and from domestic pursuits to careers in offices and factories. Prominent women in their respective communities established YWCAs, raised funds to construct YWCA facilities, furnished the facilities, and served on YWCA boards of directors. The organization adapted to national crises, such as the Great Depression and the two world wars, and continues to serve the cause of working women.

The YWCA movement began in England in 1855 as two separate organizations: the Prayer Union and the General Female Training Institute. The two organizations united into the YWCA and worked to improve the working conditions for women working during the Industrial Revolution. Three years later, in 1858, the Ladies Christian Association was established in New York City. Thereafter, YWCA organizations spread rapidly throughout the United States, further fueled by the evangelical movement in Christian churches and increased educational opportunities for women. The world YWCA was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and the YWCA of the U.S.A. was founded in 1906 and occupies offices in New York City. 

The YWCA offered the first boarding house for female students, teachers, and factory workers in New York City. In other cities, the YWCA offered vocational training in typewriting and sewing machine operation; employment assistance facilitated thousands of women with finding jobs; and English-as-a-second-language was offered to immigrant women. During World War I, programs were provided for armed services personnel in the United States and abroad, which led to the formation of the USOs. During the Great Depression, YWCAs provided safe and healthy living and dining arrangements for women displaced from their homes due to economic dislocation. During World War II, YWCAs served women war workers. Interestingly, several YWCAs extended services to Japanese-American women and girls incarcerated in World War II relocation centers (1).

Each YWCA property listed in the National Register embodies the organization’s major goals in assisting working women. Each also provides their own unique and local dimension to the national movement. The Central YWCA in Richmond, Virginia, serves as an important example. Constructed in 1913-14, the Central YWCA in Richmond provided employment referral services, room and board facilities, and physical fitness programs. The travelers’ aid program met trains carrying young women to Richmond to work in its tobacco factories, department stores, and offices. The Richmond Central YWCA building included a gymnasium, library, cafeteria, auditorium, domestic science room, committee rooms, offices, and dormitory rooms. The Beaux Arts Palazzo style of the building was compatible with the other private, mostly male, clubs in downtown Richmond.

The Central YWCA in Richmond operated similar programs for women and girls in the city’s African-American population at the Phyllis Wheatley Branch. Despite the separate facilities, efforts to promote interracial cooperation began in 1925 when a member of the Wheatley branch was invited to sit on the Central board of directors. In the following decades, the Central YWCA fostered studies of the economic and social needs of the black community. By the mid-1960s, the YWCA integrated all of its programs and facilities and promoted the elimination of racism in other areas of Richmond life (2). 

The sizeable 12-story neo-Gothic YWCA in Cincinnati, Ohio, represents the scale of accommodations needed for a major urban area. The Cincinnati YWCA featured a chapel, as well as meeting rooms, gymnasium, and individual dormitory rooms. During the Great Depression, the Cincinnati YWCA provided training classes and facilities for WPA projects. During World War II, a USO Center hosted thousands of military personnel. The Cincinnati YWCA cooperated with the Red Cross in organizing the “Contact Club,” which met “the recreational needs of Japanese-Americans who relocated in Cincinnati” (3).

Constructed in 1934, the YWCA in Yakima, Washington, illustrates other aspects of women’s history in the United States. The Yakima YWCA president, Mary Remy, planned the design for the buildings, which was then finalized by Yakima architect John Maloney. Remy’s building embodied her interest in the architecture of Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia. This building also can be viewed as an appropriate expression of the nation’s interest in the roots of American architecture, which was embodied by the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg. The Federal style building housed dormitory rooms, lounges, gymnasium, and a large kitchen (4).

An understanding of the YWCA movement in the United States can be enhanced through the examination of National Register nominations of related institutions. For example, the 1930 Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association Building in Baltimore, Maryland, was the first Jewish “Y” in the nation. It provided educational and social services and bridged the cultural gap between the older and newer Jewish communities in Baltimore. Another related National Register property is the Barbizon Hotel for Women in New York City, constructed in 1927. The Barbizon was a dormitory-like residential hotel for women that supported their entry into adult careers in the business and the arts. Today, the building serves as a hotel. The many similar women’s philanthropic clubs listed in the National Register also expand our knowledge of and appreciation for the theme of working women during much of the 20th century. 

Although they operate today within a context different from their historical roots, YWCAs continue to provide vital services to working women today. On the World Wide Web, the YWCA of the U.S.A. fact sheet describes the organization’s central mission: 

“The oldest organization owned and managed by women, the 374 member associations are headquartered in skyscrapers, community center, classrooms, houses, campus centers, storefronts, and mobile vans. Four thousand locations nationwide provide safety, shelter, day care, physical fitness programs, counseling, and social, health, educational, and job-related services to millions of women and girls and their communities annually” (5).

Based on their central role in women’s history, there are doubtless many more YWCA facilities that could be nominated to the National Register. While all can be related to the national and international YWCA movement, they also reflect their times and embody the special circumstances of the communities that they served. 

1. “YWCA Historic ‘Firsts’ & Other Milestones,” YWCA of the U.S.A. homepage on the World Wide Web, http://www.cybergirl.com/dv/ywca/history.html. 
2. Elizabeth S. Brinson and H. Christopher Slusher, “Young Women’s Christian Association,” Richmond, Virginia, National Register of Historic Places Nomination, October 31, 1983. 
3. Winston E. Folkers, “Young Women’s Christian Association of Cincinnati,” Cincinnati, Ohio, National Register of Historic Places Nomination, February 26, 1982. 
4. Letty Ann Ginn, “Young Women’s Christian Association Building,” Yakima, Washington, National Register of Historic Places Nomination, July 10, 1992.
5. “YWCA Historic ‘Firsts’ & Other Milestones,” YWCA of the U.S.A. homepage on the World Wide Web http://www.cybergirl.com/dv/ywca/history.html

Antoinette J. Lee is Senior Historian for National Programs, Heritage Preservation Services, National Park Service. Adapted from Cultural Resource Management, volume 20, number 3, 1997.