1800-1899

YMCA housing was started in the 1860s to give young men moving from rural areas safe and affordable lodging in the city. Facilities included gyms, auditoriums and hotel-like rooms. Chicago’s Farwell Hall, the first known YMCA dormitory, was completed in 1867. Between 1922 and 1940, YMCA accommodations grew from approximately 55,000 rooms to over 100,000 – more than any hotel chain at the time. Among those who stayed at YMCA residences: journalists Andy Rooney and Dan Rather, civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., novelist Jack Kerouac and U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young.

In 1861, a conference with President Abraham Lincoln led to the full-scale recruitment of YMCA volunteers. Eventually growing to 5,000 in number, volunteer members of the U.S. Christian Commission served as surgeons, nurses and chaplains during the American Civil War, distributing medical supplies, food and clothing, and teaching soldiers to read and write.

The first YMCA buildings constructed with gymnasiums opened in 1869. In 1881, Boston YMCA staffer Robert J. Roberts coined the term “body building” and developed exercise classes that were a precursor to today’s fitness workouts.

In 1872, the first Railroad YMCA was organized in Cleveland as a partnership between the YMCA and railroad companies to provide wholesome overnight lodging and meeting space for railroad workers.

Camping became a cornerstone of YMCA programming in 1885 when the YMCA opened America’s first known summer camp, Camp Dudley at Orange Lake, New York. The longest continually operating camp, its aim was to provide children with a positive developmental experience that encouraged friendship, confidence and self-reliance.

Founded in 1889, YMCA of the USA's World Service Campaign raises awareness of and financial support for the powerful work of YMCAs around the world. Each year, the campaign raises approximately $1.5 million to fund programs designed to empower young people and adults with the resources to create a better future for themselves and their families.

In December 1891, Dr. Luther Gulick, director of the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, gave physical education teacher James Naismith two weeks to come up with an indoor winter game to challenge a class of future Y directors. Naismith hung peach baskets to the bottom of a second-level running track and taught the men his new game: basketball. Today, basketball is second only to soccer as the most popular sport in the world.

In the 1890s, YMCA instructor William Morgan considered basketball too strenuous for businessmen, so he blended elements of the game with tennis and handball and called his invention “mintonette.” In 1896, at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, the name “volley ball” was first used to describe the back-and-forth manner in which the ball flew over the net. Today, more than 46 million Americans play volleyball.

Early YMCAs created a number of programs to bring higher education to working-class Americans. In 1893, the Boston YMCA began offering larger-scale liberal arts and vocational courses. By 1950, the Y operated 20 colleges in cities across the country, and many of these YMCA-founded schools became freestanding institutions of higher learning.