Ground is broken for the old building.
The YMCA was captured on a postcard from the 1940's pictured above.
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Founded in 1916 and incorporated in 1918, the Tri-City Area YMCA has a proud history of effective and practical service to its members. Originally, the YMCA functioned as a rooming house for itinerant industrial workers of Granite City, Madison and Venice.
 The YMCA's founders envisioned an environment that emphasized study and education, thereby helping immigrant workers to become United States citizens. Partnerships with schools and civic organizations led to naturalization and study programs that functioned for many years.
 By 1924, the need for broad-spectrum YMCA services in the Tri-City area was very apparent. As a result, the community engaged in a successful fund-raising campaign that netted $300,000 and the doors of the old Tri-City Area YMCA building opened to the public in 1926. This facility provided complete YMCA services including education, recreation and physical fitness.
Though it has went through several incarnations and changes through it's eight decades of existence, the mission was still the same: "To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all." This has been accomplished in several different methods and ways.
 With the "Learn to Swim" programs ran as far back as the 1930's, kids were able to come to the YMCA to use the pool. Also at the old Y, was the mainstay of boxing, which for a long time, was very popular throughout the YMCA's in the United States. A little known fact of the Tri-City YMCA is that along with the many activities and social events that went on, there were even bowling lanes in the lower level. The lanes were located where the Nautilus area of the old building, and allowed visitors to throw a few leisurely frames.
The YMCA...[ Center of Downtown ]
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