The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh is partnering with Action-Housing to renovate its historic branch on Centre Avenue in the Hill District where it provides single-room housing for low-income men.
Once a hub for sports, recreation and cultural activities in the Hill District, the branch was the first YMCA in the city established for blacks. Among the prominent African-Americans who entertained there was singer Marian Anderson, while professional boxers including Joe Louis trained in the basement gym.
Under the new plan, the YMCA-Action Housing partnership will create a new nonprofit, Centre Avenue Housing Inc., that will own and operate the facility.
The renovation, targeted to begin in early 2019, is expected to cost $7 million, said Lena Andrews, senior development officer of Action-Housing.
Funding sources include federal historic tax credits, a $400,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency; $400,000 from philanthropy McAuley Ministries; and $40,000 from Bridgeway Capital, a nonprofit lender.
Total project funds have yet to be raised, said Ms. Andrews adding that Action-Housing and the YMCA “are applying for every funding source we can find.”
The deal marks the latest move by the nonprofit YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh to shed some of real estate holdings and downsize after a recent stint in bankruptcy.
The nonprofit closed its Downtown branch and one in Delmont, Westmoreland County, in June; shuttered facilities in Penn Hills, Wilmerding and Coraopolis in August; and has made staff cuts after announcing in May it was running an annual deficit of $1 million.
Plans for the Centre Avenue Y will be presented at a community meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Jeron X. Grayson Community Center, 1852 Enoch St.
After the Y is renovated, it will include 74 units of housing compared with 76 rooms it currently rents, said Aaron Gibson, regional executive director for the YMCA who oversees the Centre Avenue branch and the Thelma Lovette branch which opened in 2012 less than a mile away on Centre Avenue.
While fitness facilities and most programs for YMCA members in the neighborhood have shifted to the Thelma Lovette Y, “There is a need for housing,” said Mr. Gibson. “Homeless rates continue to rise and occupancy here is always over 90 percent.”
A place to stay since 1923
The YMCA offered room rentals at the facility since it opened in 1923 and in 1988 restructured it for low-income tenants.
Under the new partnership, meals, counseling and other support services will still be offered to residents — many of whom have lost jobs or are transitioning from jail or addiction recovery programs, said Mr. Gibson.
Residents who are employed pay $90 per week and 10 rooms are leased through Allegheny County’s Bridge Housing program that subsidizes a portion of rent for tenants who qualify.
“We want to provide these men with dignity,” said Mr. Gibson. “If your house is clean, you start to feel good about yourself,” he said.
Planned renovations to the four-story building include updates to the kitchen, sleeping rooms, bathrooms, lounge, meeting rooms and offices.
Though a swimming pool has been closed for years, a fitness center in the basement features a boxing ring used on the set of the movie “Southpaw.”
After the movie was filmed in Western Pennsylvania, its director, Pittsburgh native Antoine Fuqua, donated the ring to the YMCA.
Actor Denzel Washington used the ring to train while he was in the neighborhood shooting the 2016 film “Fences.”
Action-Housing is tapping a model it used to renovate the former McKeesport YMCA into single-room occupancy housing, said Ms. Andrews.
It also was the developer of Wood Street Commons, Downtown, which also has single-room occupancy units for low-income individuals.
In planning the rehab of the Centre Avenue structure — which was designated a historic landmark by the city of Pittsburgh — Action-Housing wants “to maintain the historic look of the building … and maintain a historic asset,” said Ms. Andrews.
Jackie Robinson and W.E.B. DuBois
Founded long before the existing building opened, the branch was the first YMCA in the city organized for African-Americans and for decades was a focal point of recreation and culture in the Hill District.
In 1893, a group of individuals at the Old Bethel AME church in the Hill District leased a storefront on Wylie Avenue as its first location, according to a history of the Centre Avenue YMCA written by Leon Haley.
In 1910, Julius Rosenwald, then the vice president of national retailer Sears, Roebuck, provided challenge grants of $25,000 to “colored” YMCAs nationwide with the stipulation they raise $75,000 each to construct new facilities.
The branch was one of 12 in the U.S. to receive an initial grant and chose the site at Centre Avenue and Francis Street.
“The Centre Avenue YMCA would become for the black community its meeting house, recreation center, lyceum, concert hall, school house, hotel and, on occasion, worship site,” Mr. Haley wrote in his book.
Scientist George Washington Carver and activist-author W.E.B. DuBois spoke there at Sunday afternoon symposiums and Ms. Anderson gave a recital.
Major League Baseball’s Jackie Robinson bunked there when he played in Pittsburgh, and so did jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
Besides Mr. Louis, boxing champions Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles and Jackie Wilson trained in the branch’s gym.
Elevator operator training
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Centre Avenue Y served as a work training hub.
Among the programs offered was a course in becoming a waiter or elevator operator for Downtown department stores.
When black students attending the University of Pittsburgh in the early 1900s were denied housing by private landlords in Oakland, many stayed at the branch.
One was John Woodruff, who ran track at Pitt and won a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
Women became active members in the 1950s after a nearby YWCA closed.
Demand for the branch’s housing and food services slowed down after desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s because blacks were able to patronize other venues that formerly banned them.
Membership also declined during those years as thousands of blacks were displaced from the Hill because of urban renewal and construction of the Civic Arena.
Michele Rone Cooper, executive director of McAuley Ministries, said the foundation funded a feasibility study of the single-room housing program at the YMCA in 2015 and awarded the $400,000 grant for renovation because affordable housing is a “strategic priority.”
The project will “revitalize an historic asset, maintain affordable housing in the Hill District and help support continued development in the Centre Avenue corridor,” she said.
Joyce Gannon: jgannon@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1580.
First Published: October 24, 2018, 7:25 p.m.
