Nostalgia-Keymens Club, Division St. Y (Cicero, Oak Park: neighborhood, YMCA, college)

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Can anyone fill me in on these 2 places? We used to go there in the 50s. Now I can't find them online.

Thanks.

Wilbur

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Cotugno's and the Old Spinning Wheel. Gone???

Wilbur

[aragx6]

I merged these two threads since they're on the same topic.

[Avengerfire]

I believe the Division street Y has been demolished. Are you speaking of the one in (East) Ukranian Village at Ashland and Division?

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I thought it was called Division Street YMCA. All I remember is that it had a barbershop and indoor velodrome--a banked wooden indoor track upstairs.

The Keymans Club had a terrific swimming pool that the Elmhurst YMCA would use for classes before it had its own.

I'm not at all sure where either of these was; I was just a young kid.

If either of them is still there, I want to go visit.

Help anyone?

Thanks.

[S-sider]

I thought it was called Division Street YMCA. All I remember is that it had a barbershop and indoor velodrome--a banked wooden indoor track upstairs.

The Keymans Club had a terrific swimming pool that the Elmhurst YMCA would use.

I'm not at all sure where either of these was; I was just a young kid.

If either of them is still there, I want to go visit.

Help anyone?

Thanks.

[mrbobbo]

The Keyman's Club that I knew was on Madison street between Kilpatrick and Cicero avenue. My friends and I used to stop in there and watch them bowling and swimming on Friday nights in 1954 or '55.
It was prretty far from Elmhurst so it's hard to conceive that the "Y" there would travel all that distance for swim classes unless you're thinking of a different Keyman's. It was a pretty Swanky place in the 50's and before that it was probably really something. I was in 6th. and 7th. grade when we'd run in there.
Many years later (1984 or so?) I drove back to that neighborhood where I had grown up (Kilbourne and West End) and went by the place. It literally looked like it had been bombed out. Windows all out.Abandoned and a derelict. What a shame. Victim of the Martin Luther King riots.
It's complketely gone now. Leveled and just a vacant lot. Google Street view will let you go by the site without risking your life. Too bad.

[Irishtom29]

Yeah, I used to go swimming at the Keyman's Club on Madison, used to go to the Byrd show too. I wouldn't go around there in an M1 tank now.

[JoeyKC]

I, too, took swimming lessons at the Keymen's Club as part of the Elmhurst YMCA program. We got picked up in Villa Park, as I recall. After the Elmhurst Y built a facility in Elmhurst, the swimming lessons were moved there.

Remember Mr. Moody and Mr. Fraser, the swim coaches?

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I remember Mr. Moody and Hal Fraser very well. And long bus rides for swimming. For a while they used the Oak Park YMCA, and the Elmhurst College pool, but the Keyman's Club was outstanding.

Could you tell me the approximate route the buses took to the Keyman's Club? I was too young to know where we were, and didn't live there long enough to learn the area. I do recall passing what seemed to be a large cemetery.

Very cool to hear from someone about this. I'll check the forum more often from now on!!