One hundred and thirty-eight years ago this fall, the YMCA opened its doors in our hometown. In April 2023, Jason Thieme, new branch executive for the Kewanee YMCA, announced a goal to build a brand-new YMCA facility. Visual representations will be unveiled sometime in the near future. Hopefully, realization of the goal will be in three to five years.
The current YMCA facility was built in 1931-32. But how and where did the YMCA get its start in Kewanee?
The Kewanee Historical Society suggests that the YMCA was organized in Kewanee in 1888, with its first location at 219 N. Main St. A 2013 Kewanee Star Courier article posited that Kewanee’s YMCA dates back to the winter of 1887 when discussions about its formation turned into action and in April 1888, a charter was issued to the local organization.
I rely on both of those great sources for much of my research, but in this case, they’re off the mark. Here’s what my research revealed.
First, by way of background, Kewanee had in its midst a man who helped found the very first YMCA in the nation.
Prior to his arrival in Kewanee in 1855, Rufus Parker Parrish was part of a group of men responsible for establishing the country’s first YMCA, in Boston, in 1851. While there is no record of Parrish’s formal participation in establishing Kewanee’s YMCA, as a respected city leader, his advice was undoubtedly sought and received.
An article in a late September 1885 edition of the (Kewanee) Independent reported that discussions had begun about starting a branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Kewanee. Early October issues of the Independent and the Kewanee Star Courier described a September 30 meeting attended by between 30 and 40 citizens at the Methodist Episcopal Church to consider the feasibility of organizing a YMCA in Kewanee. Nearly every church in Kewanee was represented.
At the meeting, Dr. Frank Swain was elected chairman and Joe. M. Gamble as secretary. The YMCA’s constitution was read to fully understand the purpose of the proposed organization. The group decided to form a committee composed of one representative of each religious denomination to prepare a report. Secretary Gamble was assigned to contact the state YMCA secretary to ask him to deliver an address to the Kewanee group.
At an October 14 meeting, the Independent wrote, the group reviewed the committee’s prepared report and, following its recommendation, adopted a constitution and elected officers: Corliss W. Lay, president; C. S. Wentworth, vice-president; Joe. M. Gamble, secretary; and Oscar Kreidler, treasurer. Several committees were formed, one of which was charged with finding a permanent meeting space. In the meantime, the group held its first devotional meeting at the Congregational Church. Also, the group chose delegates to send to the state YMCA meeting in Galesburg.
In late October, the Independent reported that the meeting room committee recommended a hall in the new, two-story Hoffrichter & Fischer’s meat market building at 209 W. Second St., on the south side between Chestnut and Tremont streets. The Kewanee Star Courier advised that, after the rooms were carpeted and furniture moved in, the new Kewanee YMCA was in operation on October 29, open every weekday and Sundays, 3 pm to 9 pm.
In November, the Independent ran a story about the YMCA organizing an orchestra and furnishing entertainment, not only in its rooms, but elsewhere in the village. In late November, the Kewanee Star Courier reported that the orchestra, composed of 10 instruments and accompanied by a choir of men, enthusiastically performed for the YMCA’s general state secretary at a special meeting.
The Kewanee Courier reported in December that the YMCA meetings drew larger numbers for a “valuable rendezvous for young men,” and a year later, that the organization was seeking a paid general secretary to take charge of the group.
That same December in 1886, the Independent wrote that the YMCA was looking for a place for a gymnasium, trying to rent an old roller rink in the village. But that effort did not succeed.
However, the Kewanee Courier reported that on April 12, 1887, the YMCA board of directors accepted a proposal to rent the rooms above the first story commercial businesses in the Quinn building at 219 N. Main St. The new space would accommodate a chapel, a gymnasium, a reading room, a parlor and a classroom.
That space would house the YMCA until 1907, when it secured its own building on the corner of Main and First streets. It stayed there until the current building was constructed during the Depression.
Local newspapers clearly document the year of the founding of the Kewanee YMCA. And the YMCA’s national records tell the same tale:
That’s the story of the beginning of Kewanee’s YMCA.
I remember as a grade-schooler taking swimming lessons, playing basketball, and shooting pool at the YMCA in Kewanee, across the street from Visitation School. The Kewanee YMCA has been serving kids like me and the whole community for 138 years, and it’s clearly charting a course to robustly continue to serve our hometown.
