The first YMCA in the United States opens its doors in Boston - December 29th, 1851

On this day in 1851, retired sea captain Thomas Sullivan helped establish the first YMCA in the United States in Boston.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show for those who can never know enough about history.
I'm Gabe Louzier, and in this episode, we're looking at
the early days of a youth outreach movement whose four
letter name is now known around the world. The day

(00:29):
was December nine, eighteen fifty one. Retired Sea Captain Thomas
Sullivan helped establish the first y m c A in
the United States in Boston. The Boston chapter of the
Young Men's Christian Association provided food, shelter, a safe place
for socialization and exercise, as well as Bible classes and

(00:53):
prayer meetings to those in need. It's overarching goal was
to protect young men who came to the city from
the vices of urban life, or, as Sullivan put it, quote,
to meet the young stranger as he enters our city,
and in every way throw around him good influences so
that he may feel that he is not a stranger.

(01:16):
Sullivan's y m c A was patterned after the first one,
which had been established in London in the eighteen forties.
At the time, industrialization had brought thousands of young adults
to London in search of work. They quickly found that
life in a bustling city was very different from that
of their rural family farms, and not always in a

(01:38):
good way. Many found jobs in factories and warehouses, as
they had hoped, but the working conditions there were much
harsher than expected, complete with twelve hour work days, six
days a week. Most of the transplants lived in crowded
boarding houses or in tiny rooms above the company office,

(02:00):
separated from their families and communities for the first time
in their lives. Many of the young men turned to
the seedier aspects of city life for comfort. Some wasted
all their pay in taverns, brothels and gambling dens. Others
had it stolen outright by thieves and scammers who saw

(02:20):
the country boys as easy prey. One young man drawn
to city life in London was a former farmer named
George Williams. He had done all right for himself after
the move, finding steady work at a department store by
the age of twenty two. However, he was concerned about
his less fortunate peers. Not only was there physical health

(02:44):
at risk due to poor working and living conditions, Williams
believed they were in spiritual danger as well. His solution
was to provide healthier means of diversion for the city's
youth in order to keep them away from temptation. To
that end, Williams partnered with eleven like minded workers on

(03:04):
June six, eighteen forty four. Together, they created the world's
first y m c A, with the mission to improve
quote the spiritual condition of young men engaged in drapery,
embroidery and other trades. The idea was embraced by the public,
and y m c A chapters began to spring up

(03:26):
all over. Within ten years, there were around two dozen
y m c as in Great Britain alone. The idea
was also gaining traction in other countries that were experiencing
the growing pains of industrialization, including the United States. In
eighteen fifty one, Boston native Thomas Sullivan read about the

(03:47):
organization and an article written by an American student who
had visited London. Sullivan had recently retired after a life
at sea and turned his attention to social outreach missionary work.
In eighteen forty eight, he founded Boston's Marine Mission at Large,
which ministered to sailors. Three years later, after learning about

(04:11):
the y m c A, Sullivan decided to bring the
program to Boston. On December fifteenth, he met with thirty
one men from local city churches and wrote a set
of guidelines for what would become America's first y m
c A. Sullivan spent the next two weeks drafting and
redrafting the charter. Finally, on December twenty nine, the group

(04:34):
reconvened and voted to adopt the constitution for the y
m c A of Boston. The initial rules written by
Sullivan would remain in place for nearly four decades, serving
as the foundation for many other y m c A's
throughout the growing country. Within a few years, the organization

(04:55):
had spread throughout the United States, just as it had
done in Great Britain in the late nineteenth century. The
y m c A broadened the scope of its outreach
and began accepting young men, whether they were Christian or not.
It also started putting a greater emphasis on exercise and
physical fitness. For example, the y in Boston installed the

(05:19):
country's first indoor swimming pools. Other chapters in Massachusetts were
even more pioneering, eventually leading to the creation of two
brand new sports at the Y in Springfield, an instructor
named James Naysmith invented the game of basketball in eighteen
ninety one as a new way to keep his students

(05:39):
active during the frigid New England winters. The game quickly
caught on and was taught at y m c A's
throughout the state. However, four years later, at the y
m c A in Holyoke, a gym teacher named William
Morgan noticed a problem with the game. Over the years,
the organization had relaxed its age restrictions, meaning that men

(06:03):
of any age could now make use of its facilities.
Morgan realized that basketball was too strenuous for the older men,
so he developed a new, less demanding, indoor sport for
them to play. He called the game mintont as a
play on badminton, but we know it better today as volleyball.

(06:25):
In eighteen fifty five, four years after Thomas Sullivan launched
the first y m c A in America, a meeting
was held in Paris. Delegates from ninety nine chapters gathered
and agreed to form the World Alliance of y m
c a s. Today, the organization exists in more than
a hundred and twenty countries, with about twenty five hundred

(06:48):
individual branches just in the United States. The nonprofit has
certainly grown in scope, but it remains every bit as
committed to improving the physical, mental, and ritual health of
men of all ages and from all walks of life. Lastly,
I have to acknowledge the elephant in the room, which is,

(07:08):
of course, the y m c A song that you've
probably been humming since you saw this episode's title. The
disco song y m c A was released by The
Village People in eight It was one of the biggest

(07:29):
hits of the decade and remains popular today, especially at
sporting events where crowds are still fond of spelling out
the letters with their arms. At first glance, the song
seems like an ideal anthem for the organization, extolling its
virtues and all the fun activities it offers. However, the
actual y m c A didn't see it that way.

(07:51):
In nineteen seventy nine, they filed a lawsuit against the
band for copyright infringement, though they later dropped the case.
At that point, the song was just too popular to silence,
much to the relief of macho men worldwide. I'm Gabe
Louisier and hopefully you now know a little more about

(08:12):
history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to
keep up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at t d I HC Show, and if
you have any comments or suggestions, you can always send
them my way at this Day at I heart media
dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mace for producing the show,

(08:34):
and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here
again tomorrow for another Day in History class. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, vis the i Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.