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Overview

The Young Men's Christian Association operated its recreational facility in San Francisco at this address in 1869. The location, in 2016, was occupied by the W and J Sloane Building #3, erected in 1910-1911.

Building History

The Young Men's Christian Association Building was completed in 1868. The San Francisco Directory for the Year Commencing April, 1871, described the organization and its building as follows: "This association, founded in 1853, has for its object the moral, mental and social improvement of young men. It has, at its elegant building on Sutter Street, a fine reading room, library, gymnasium, lecture room, etc. It is also the design of the association to provide, so far as is possible, employment, a place of social comfort and resort, and a local point of pleasant attraction for young men arriving here without other acquaintance than those made here. The library contains about four thousand volumes of well-selected and valuable works, embracing all branches of literature; and the reading room is supplied with the best newspapers and leading periodicals of the country. The regular meeting of the association are held on the third Monday evening of each month, when the usual business is transacted; and when there is not a pressure of business, literary and musical exercised are held. The building of the association is on the north side of Sutter, between Kearny and Dupont streets; is built of brick, with a massive and ornate stone front; and is one hundred and twenty feet deep by fifty-four and a half feet wide. The basement and ground floors are occupied by stores, the second floor by the library, reading room, ladies' rooms, chess room, ante-rooms, and a hall for lectures, etc., which has a capacity for seating seven hundred and fifty persons. Beneath the lecture room is a gymnasium; and in the third story are committee rooms, hall for meetings of the association, and apartments for offices, etc., for rent. The edifice is well arranged with every convenience for comfort and for the purposes for which it was designed." (See San Francisco Directory for the Year Commencing April, 1871, p. 45.)

The popular NY periodical Harper's Weekly featured a wood engraving of the San Francisco YMCA #1 on its first page on 02/06/1869. It said of the new facility: "This elegant and commodious building, of which we give an illustration on this page, has been recently erected for the use of the Young Men's Christian Association in San Francisco. It is located on Suttee [sic] Street, and has a frontage of 54 feet with 120 feet depth. It consists of a basement and two stories, with a Mansard roof overlooked by a tower, and contains a reading-room, lecture-hall, a library, and lodging and bath rooms. There is also a gymnasium connected with the building. The front is built of blue sandstone wrought after the Venetian style. The building and lot cost $75,000." (See "The Y.M.C.A. Building, San Francisco," Harper's Weekly, vol. XIII, no. 632, 02/06/1869, p. 1.)

Building Notes

In 1869, the Adelphi Club maintained its club rooms in the YMCA Building at 232 Sutter Street in San Francisco. (See San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1869, p. 65.)

PCAD id: 20664