The "'Y' Memories" Story

The YMCA at the corner of North Queen and West Orange
Streets in downtown Lancaster, PA. Taken in 1910.

It was an ordinary day.  Driving north on Queen Street past the YMCA in Lancaster, PA.  Used to work at the Acme Super- market about a half block away on the same side of the street.  At the time I was employed at the Acme, the YMCA was in downtown Lancaster, but in the early 1960's the city of Lancaster got the bright idea that they should tear down the 100 block of North Queen Street  because of declining shopping in downtown Lancaster.  Seems that in 1958 the Lancaster Shopping Center opened to the north of town in Manheim Township.  

This photograph was taken on June 14, 1946
when 5,000 USA troops marched down Orange St.

Seven years later, spurred on by a plan initiated by the redevelopment authority of Lancaster, the 100 block of North Queen Street was demolished, obliterated in the quest for a modern urban showplace.  Movie theaters, bank buildings, and historical buildings designed by noted architect C. Emlen Urban, such as the Brunswick Hotel and Lancaster's YMCA, were razed.  Eventually, the decisions made were proven to be the wrong solution for the problem that faced the city of Lancaster.  My story today deals with one of those buildings that was destroyed in the mid-1960's, the Young Men's Christian Association.  The YMCA, or "Y" as it was called, was founded in 1844 by George Williams in London, England.  It was founded to create a place where young men could go so they would not be tempted into sin.  Before long it spread across the world, with the Lancaster YMCA that I knew and visited, being built in 1959.  I have fond memories of walking to the Y on Saturday mornings after choir practice at St. James Episcopal Church where I was a member of the boy's choir.  

Razing the Lancaster YMCA in the mid-1960's.

A few of us would walk a block from the church choir room to the corner of North Queen and West Orange Streets where the Y stood.  The entire south-west corner of the block was the Y which had rooms which my friends told me were dorms where some of their older friends lived.  The Y also had recreation rooms where we would play basketball and a pool where we would go swimming.  Now, the latter is what got me in trouble with my mom, for you see, I wasn't allowed to wear a bathing suit while swimming in their pool.  I later found out it was because the bathing suits allegedly clogged the filtration system in the pool.  Another reason was because dirt and soap from the bathing suits also clogged the filter system.  Hey, didn't matter to me.  Pretty neat that you could dive off the diving board without a suit.  That was until my mom found out I was swimming without a suit.  That ended my trips to the Y.  Found out later that when young women and girls began to use the pool, the guys had to begin wearing suits.  The YMCA that now stands in the 400 block of North Queen Street and welcomes all to be part of their program.  And, I'm sure you must wear a suit while swimming!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.