Back in July I posted about the construction of the second Y.M.C.A. on Governors Island in 1927. That building still stands, though it is boarded up and would need considerable work to be functional. With so many other wothwhile projects underway in the city-managed portion of the island, I don’t know when or if that would ever happen. As I mentioned in that post, the original Y.M.C.A. had its soft opening in July 1900. The ceremony was understated because those who can get out of Gotham during the dog days of summer do so. In other words, all the big shots were out of town. Well today, October 10, marks the anniversary of the grand opening of that first Governors Island Y.M.C.A.

The original Y–the first ever on a U.S. Army base–was funded by William E. Dodge Jr. No one remembers who he was today, but Dodge was a member of one of the 19th century’s great merchant families. He also co-founded the Allotment Commission with Theodore Roosevelt Sr. during the American CIvil War. It says something about how young Roosevelt was when he died in 1878 that his friends and contemporaries were still going strong at the turn of the 20th century. Dodge said a few words on that October day. So did his son, the President of the Young Men’s Christian Association Cleveland H. Dodge.

One of the more interesting characters on hand was Joseph Wheeler. Yes, that Joe Wheeler. Wheeler had retired from the regular Army exactly one month earlier, on 10 September. In between his 1859 graduation from West Point he managed to fight as an officer in the Confederate infantry at Shiloh, command the cavalry of the Army of Mississippi, serve eight terms in Congress after the Civil War, and accept William McKinley’s call to service in the Spanish-American War. He fought in the Philippines as well. It was during the Spanish-American War that he came to know Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had risen like a meteor after San Juan Hill and by 1900 he was McKinley’s running mate. The Y.M.C.A.’s ceremony fell in the middle of the 1900 presidential election. Roosevelt was in Indiana castigating Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan the day of the Y dedication.

It is unfortunate that the original Y.M.C.A. is no longer extant. I am not even certain where it stood–the closest I have gotten to a description is that it stood on the southwest part of the island. That could be anywhere. I have not been able to find any photographs either–and I have looked, believe me. Still, it was just as well that that first Y.M.C.A.–dedicated 114 years ago today–did not last. The Army loved it so much that they outgrew it so quickly. That is why they built the second, bigger and better one in the late 1920s. All told the Y.M.C.A. served its function on Governors Island for over sixty years.

(image/NYPL)