Please note: This finding aid describes only that part of the fonds that has been processed. As additional records are processed, the finding aid will be updated and revised.

P145. - YMCA of Montreal. - 1851-2003. -   approximately 125 m of textual records. - graphic materials (ca. 30,000 photographs). - 3 m of audiovisual documents. - maps. - posters. - objects. - other materials.

Administrative history
The YMCA--the Young Men's Christian Association--was founded in London, England in 1844 by George Williams, age 23. It was a religious (Evangelical Protestant Christian) movement for young men who had left their families and migrated from outlying areas to jobs in London. Its goal was their spiritual and moral character development, and it provided fellowship and opportunities for constructive use of leisure time.

The Association grew quickly, and word of it was spread at the world's fair that took place in London in 1851. Over 350,000 YMCA pamphlets were distributed to visitors from all over the world, including a number of Montrealers who judged that it would fulfill a need in their city.

An inaugural meeting of the Montreal YMCA took place at St. Helen Street Baptist Church in November 1851. The Montreal YMCA can claim to be the first in North America, although about the same time YMCAs started up in Boston, New York, Toronto, and other North American cities. The North American YMCAs formed a confederation in 1854. The World Alliance of YMCAs was formed in 1855.

As an adjunct to its religious mission, in the 1850s the Montreal YMCA created a social centre in rented quarters where young men could gather. It included a library/reading room and at the site the Y offered lectures, an employment service, and charitable relief to the indigent. The first Montreal YMCA building was erected in 1873 on Victoria Square, on the present (in 2007) site of the Cité internationale. That year, the first evening educational courses were held--in French and shorthand. Services were added for younger boys and immigrants. Sports were added to the program in the late 1880s. War work--services to military personnel--was first undertaken during the Boer War, and foreign service--outreach to other countries--became important early in the twentieth century.

Expansion was rapid, and in 1892 the Montreal YMCA created new quarters on Dominion Square, where the Sun Life building now stands. In the Dominion Square Y building there were meeting rooms, a reading room and a library, club and class rooms, an auditorium, a gymnasium, locker and shower rooms, a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and a dining room.

In 1894, a boys' summer camp was opened in the Laurentians north of Montreal. Outdoor programs have been part of the Association's programming ever since.

The YMCA's Canadian national administrative headquarters were located in Montreal until the formation of the National Council of YMCAs of Canada in 1912 with headquarters in Toronto.

In 1912, the Central/Downtown Branch of the Montreal Association moved to new quarters on Drummond Street. That year, the Association opened the Westmount Branch and the North Branch at Avenue du Parc and St-Viateur. Other branches and various satellite projects have existed at various times throughout the Metropolitan Montreal region.

In 1931 the Downtown Branch was remodeled and a 500-room residential annex was added to provide low-cost accommodation and meals for men. The residence would later serve as accommodation for refugees. In 2001 as part of a major renovation of the YMCA Centre-Ville, the Montreal YMCA discontinued its downtown residence and moved its refugee accommodation into the former Reddy Memorial Hospital on Tupper Street.

In the 1970s a shift in provincial and municipal government policy in Quebec meant increased emphasis on community recreational programs, and the YMCA provided input and management services for these programs. Community development programs, including crime prevention and offender rehabilitation, were added.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Metropolitan Montreal Association included the Downtown Branch/YMCA Centre-ville (which was also the site of the Metropolitan headquarters), the du Parc YMCA, the Guy-Favreau YMCA, the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve YMCA, the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce YMCA, the Pointe Saint-Charles YMCA, the (Ville) Saint-Laurent YMCA, the West Island YMCA Family Centre, the West Island YMCA Community Centre, the Westmount YMCA, Kamp Kanawana, the YMCA residence for refugee claimants, as well as the YMCA   International Language school on Stanley Street, and the YMCA Foundation and Metropolitan services offices which were located in the same building as the YMCA Centre-Ville.  

While the early YMCA had a strong Christian emphasis, the organization gradually secularized and evolved into a social movement with a wide range of programs, including physical fitness, health care, child care, summer camp, juvenile crime prevention and other forms of social work, and numerous other types of activity aimed at helping people improve their quality of life in the community. What the 21st-century YMCA has in common with the organization of 1851 is a commitment to helping people make constructive use of their leisure time.

Scope and content
In addition to documenting the Montreal YMCA, the fonds documents the history of the Montreal region as well the YMCA at the local, national and international levels. It documents Concordia University founding institution Sir George Williams University and its precursors.

The fonds includes materials that were amassed by Harold C. Cross and Murray C. Ross when they were developing their histories of the Montreal Association and the YMCA in Canada, respectively. It also includes materials from the former Montreal YMCA library.

Because the Montreal YMCA was one of the senior YMCAs in Canada, officials of the Montreal YMCA have traditionally given leadership in the National Council YMCAs of Canada. This has meant that some documents relate to both entities, particularly in the case of program areas such as War Work/Military Programs, Boys' Work and Youth Work, among others.

The fonds includes minutes, reports, correspondence, publicity materials, textual and other documents created in the administration of programs, photographs, audio-visual materials, posters, commemorative T-shirts, drinking glasses, trophies, badges, and a wide variety of other materials.

The fonds is arranged according to the following classification plan.

Immediate source of acquisition
The Montreal YMCA donated the documents to the Concordia University Archives. The first accession was moved to the Archives on the occasion of the Downtown YMCA's re-occupation of the renovated Norris Building in 2000 and 2001. Additional materials were received in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Language
The documents are in English and French.

Associated material
Materials related to the Montreal YMCA may be found in the Kautz Family YMCA Archives in the Archives of the University of Minnesota (at 2642 University Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota 55114).

Accruals
Further accruals are expected.

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