Chicago YMCA in the 1950's

[JohnDoe2008]

oh yea. well, theres still a lot of people begging in front of the one your link goes to, the one on chicago.

[fitzthecat]

>> Times were better before the 60's when everything went to hell. And I'm 22. <<

Having been there, I'll take 2008 over 1958 anytime. As a 12 year old from subtropical Houston walking the streets of Chicago at 5 below without a dime in my pocket, things looked quite bad enough.

The Y building definitely wasn't the one north of the river.

Mark

[West of Western]

Chicago trivia: Ronnie's son and daughter started a low-fat baking company called Little Miss Muffin.

[LukaJumper]

My uncle was an executive for Aero Jet General - dealt mostly in tires (General Tires.) He'd made a lot of money independently in rubber and oil prior to WW II and lived in Mobile, Alabama. Neat guy, and his son, my cousin, and I were great buddies. All of us were water sports people, he had a sailboat in Mobile, all of us swam like fish and my cousin and I had started skin diving, as it was called then, when I was twelve.

My uncle was senior enough as an executive that he could refuse to travel by plane and would arrange to travel around the nation by train. Geez, I loved traveling by train back then.

In the late 1950s, when I was eleven and twelve, he'd drop by Chicago, call my mother, and we'd take the train to Chicago. He'd put my mother, (his sister), up at a nice hotel, we'd eat at a nice restaurant, usually go by a museum. At some point she'd stay at the hotel and my uncle and I'd take a cab back to the Lawson and go swimming. On a few occasions, my cousin was with him and all three of us would swim. When it was time to hit the hay for the night, all three of us would sleep in the same room. We'd stay up late and talk until we were too tired and fell over on the bed asleep. Never heard any hassle about us staying together.

However, although I lived about twenty miles south of Harvey, IL, which is south of Chicago, starting at age 10 or eleven, my mother had me catch the intercity bus after school, buy a transfer ticket and go to the Y in Harvey for swim lessons and for sports. That Y also had hotel rooms upstairs. We kids were not allowed to go upstairs. Never wanted to do so, anyway.

I had an elderly aunt who lived in Oak Park. In the late 50s through early 60s, I'd get put on the train and sent to Chicago and then took the L to Oak Park for the weekend to help my aunt. When she needed to collect her thoughts, (rest?), she'd take me over to the Y to swim and play. They, too had a hotel upstairs. In the late 70s, when I had been hired as an engineer by AT&T, I lived in one of those small, upstairs rooms for about six months while my wife and I got our house sold and could get moved to Glen Ellen. (She stayed in the house with my toddler daughter.) Not a lot to do so I swam just about every night and most mornings. I really liked being able to just go downstairs and start my day swimming laps.

I can also relate to you walking the streets. Starting when, I was 12, after I'd earned enough money for train fare and incidentals, my mother would take me up to the 211th street station in Richton Park, and let me ride by myself to Chicago. I get off the train and then walk over to the museums. Typically I'd start with the Adler Planetarium, wander the museum part and then do a show. Then it was usually over to the Museum of Science and Industry - mostly for the airplanes, the coal mine and the U 505. Didn't go to the museum of natural history very often.

On other occasions, I'd go over to the U of Chicago library. I was heavily into astronomy and they had a great section on that. Pestered the librarians so often about taking out books that they finally took pity on me and gave me a limited library card. I was 13. One of my happiest days.

There simply wasn't much fear about traveling around the city as a child. When I was hesitant when I first started, my mother pooh poohed my concern and reminded me that my cousin was traveling the bus system at the age of 12 when he came to visit. The only admonishment was to stay out of the west side or I'd be knifed. About 10 years ago, I saw the area had been cleaned up.

When I was sixteen, a classmate of mine was given the keys to his family car and encouraged to explore Chicago. The first time we ventured out, we went to one of those cheap steak places. We thought it was great adventure ... driving thirty five miles to Chicago and ordering steak on our own. We were trying to find some beatniks but didn't.

Shortly before the Christmas just after I'd turned 14, a friend's father took my friend and me to the Russian bath on Division street. My friend and his father had been there on many ocassions. Claimed it was a great way to get the winter chill out of your bones. His father told me to look around and take it all in, that such baths were all over the city when he was a boy but that era was ending now that most homes and apartments had good indoor baths with hot and cold water. I remember some old men in the steam room sitting together and belting out Christmas carols in Polish. There were a couple of boys younger than us running around throwing dippers of cold water at us until their father gave them a good chewing out.

When my daughter was graduating from high school, she wanted to get scuba certified as her graduatiion present. With her schedule, didn't know how I'd do that. Then found there was a scuba training place in Skokie where she could take lessons on Sunday. Worked out great. I was with her but she learned how to drive the Dan Ryan on those several trips.

It's a rich, wonderful city and a city of real life. Glad our next President claims it as his adopted home.

[mangr3ve]

The building has now been converted into condos and is located at 826 S. Wabash.

[Avengerfire]

I found some interesting postcards of the YMCA at 826 S. Wabash as well as other YMCA's and YWCA's in Chicago.

YMCA Hotel Marine Room, 826 S. Wabash Avenue Chicago, IL

Google Image Result for http://chicagopc.info/Chicago%20postcards/hotels%20p-z/ymca%20rooms%20examples.JPG

[zorchvalve]

ARNE21, For photos of the north ave, larabee YMCA, go to the Museum of History on Clark st. and North ave..Johnny Weismueller also used to swim at the Lawson "Y". zorchvalve

[Mr Downtown]

The big YMCA Hotel, in the 800 block of South Wabash, is now Burnham Plaza condominiums.

It's directly behind the Hilton, and a block away would have been the flophouse hotels of State Street, the burlesque district along State between Van Buren and Harrison, and the Pacific Garden Mission.

Postcards of the YMCA Hotel are easy to find on eBay and on the Web.

[mlynch55]

it was at 9th and Wabash. In the eighties it was converted to condos. they are still there 40 East 9th street.Listed on National Trust for Historic Preservation.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YMCA_Hotel_(Chicago,_Illinois[/url])
[url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-07-12/business/8702200911_1_apartments-floors-leasing]Old Ymca Has A New Lease On Life - Chicago Tribune[/url]