place

YMCA Philadelphia

1854 establishments in PennsylvaniaArt Deco architecture in PennsylvaniaBuildings and structures completed in 1928Center City, PhiladelphiaClubhouses in Pennsylvania
Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in PhiladelphiaYMCA buildings in the United States
YMCA Philadelphia building
YMCA Philadelphia building

YMCA Philadelphia, also Greater Philadelphia YMCA was founded on June 15, 1854, by George H. Stuart, a prominent Philadelphia businessman and importer. The goal of the Association was to reach "the many thousands of neglected youth not likely to be brought under any moral influence by any other means."The Greater Philadelphia YMCA is a community service organization that promotes positive values through programs that help to build strong kids, strong families and strong communities. Over the years, Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA has grown to include 15 branches and 55 program sites throughout the Greater Philadelphia area.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article YMCA Philadelphia (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

YMCA Philadelphia
Arch Street, Philadelphia Center City

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Phone number Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: YMCA PhiladelphiaContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 39.954722222222 ° E -75.164722222222 °
placeShow on map

Address

Old Nelson

Arch Street 1435
19102 Philadelphia, Center City
Pennsylvania, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Phone number

call+12155681730

YMCA Philadelphia building
YMCA Philadelphia building
Share experience

Nearby Places

Race Street Friends Meetinghouse
Race Street Friends Meetinghouse

The Race Street Meetinghouse is an historic and still active Quaker meetinghouse at 1515 Cherry Street at the corner of N. 15th Street in the Center City area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The meetinghouse served as the site of the Yearly Meeting of the Hicksite sect of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) from 1857 to 1955. Built in 1856 by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and what is now known as Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, a building 131 feet long by 80 feet wide was set fairly close to its Cherry Street frontage but sufficiently far back from Race Street to provide a pleasant open yard. The structure built was not just one meeting house, but two, so arranged and divided that either party could dispose of its property without affecting the property of the other. Construction brought two meeting rooms 36 feet high, the northern chamber being 60 feet by 80; the southern, 46 by 80. Each had "youth's galleries" on three sides. Between the two meetinghouses, and exceeding them by 16 feet in total width, was a 25-by-96-foot three-story structure containing large rooms for committee meetings and other purposes.The Race Street Meetinghouse was at the forefront of women's involvement both in Quaker religion and in American political activism. Many leaders in the Women's Movement were associated with this meetinghouse; these included abolitionist and women's rights activist Lucretia Mott, peace activist Hannah Clothier Hull, and suffrage leader and Equal Rights Amendment author Alice Paul.The meetinghouse was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 for its role in the abolition of slavery, the advancement of women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement.The Meetinghouse is part of the Friends Center campus, which includes the National Office of the American Friends Service Committee, Friends World Committee for Consultation, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the United Nations Association. It is the site of a copy of Sylvia Shaw Judson's statue of Mary Dyer, the 17th-century Quaker martyr. The Friends Meeting Center, built in 1974, was designed by Cope & Lippincott.

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, or simply Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, or PYM, is the central organizing body for Quaker meetings in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, area, including parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. PYM is one of the oldest Yearly Meetings in the Religious Society of Friends. In 1827, it divided into two Meetings in the Hicksite/Orthodox schism, each Meeting claiming the title of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. In this period the two Meetings were known by the location of their respective meetinghouses (Race Street and Arch Street). In 1955, the schism was healed and the two Meetings reunited. The Yearly Meeting is a member of Friends General Conference, the main national organization of unprogrammed Quaker Meetings. The Yearly Meeting is also a member of the National Council of Churches. Westtown School, founded before the schism, and Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College became the educational mainstays of the Orthodox yearly meeting. George School and Swarthmore College were founded to provide education for the Hicksite students. While the schools remain under the indirect supervision of the reunited Yearly Meeting, both are functionally and financially independent of the Yearly Meeting, as are other Friends Schools in the area; they may be governed by members of the Society of Friends, but they are structurally independent of the Monthly and Yearly Meetings. The colleges have no formal relationship with the Meeting. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting holds annual sessions for business to which all Friends in the Philadelphia area are asked to come. These meetings, generally held in March at the Arch Street Friends Meeting House, are an opportunity for Friends to hear about the goings-on in PYM over the previous year and other Yearly Meetings that have sent news. PYM is overseen by a General Secretary. Christie Duncan-Tessmer is the current general secretary and has been since the retirement of the previous general secretary, Arthur M. Larrabee, on August 25, 2014. She was previously the Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life for PYM, a position she took in 2008.