Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Building

The five-story, red brick and multi-colored stone building at 60-62 N. Pearl St. was built for the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The 1880s building is Romanesque Revival style and held the first gymnasium in the state outside of New York City. It contained one of the country's first indoor swimming pools. The YMCA Building was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and became part of the Downtown Albany Historic District in 1980. The first basketball game played in the country (apart from Springfield College, Massachusetts, where basketball was invented in 1891) was played here in 1892. The building now houses Skinny Pancake Restaurant in the front commercial portion; Pearl Street Pub has moved to the building across the street.

The first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was established in London in 1844 by George Williams, a farmer who became a worker in a department store. He and his friends aimed to provide a safe place for young men to escape the city street's hazards. The first U.S. YMCA was established in 1851 in Boston; Albany's was organized in 1857.

The local YMCA received a donation of $50,000 from James B. Jermain to erect a new building in Albany; fundraising added funds for buying a lot and furnishing the building. Two prominent local architects, Albert W. Fuller and William A. Wheeler, designed the YMCA building for the 60-62 N. Pearl location in the mid-1880s.

The first floor of the YMCA Building is rock-faced masonry; the upper floors are a combination of brick and stone trim. It's hard to miss the projecting three-story-tall, rounded turret at the front corner; it originally was topped by a conical roof but was replaced with a flat roof. The front (east) storefront has been changed from the original. The north side of the building (along Steuben St.) has an arched, recessed entryway near the front. The building has a steep gabled roof with hip roof dormers at the intersecting gables. The building was formally dedicated in 1888. A brownstone tablet above the ground floor storefront is inscribed with the YMCA's name. Fancy floral brownstone frames the front's fourth-floor windows and the top and bottom of the turret.

In 1886, the existing five-story brick building next door (64 N. Pearl St.) was purchased as extra space (YMCA Annex). To provide even more room, the rear extension was changed from three to six stories tall in the 1920s and held mainly dormitory rooms. The ground-floor commercial store space was occupied in the late nineteenth century by the firm John R. Stevenson & Company, a "specialty house" selling "cloaks and furs."

Two more branches of the YMCA were open in Albany by the 1910s - one was the "Railroad YMCA at Broadway" and the other was the "Railroad YMCA at Watervliet Avenue." The "central association" on N. Pearl was well-equipped, according to a local Chamber of Commerce publication from around 1912. Currently, the lone YMCA in Albany is further north at 17 New Scotland Ave.

The ominous-sounding owner of the "Old Y.M.C.A. Building" in 1978 was Becker Wrecking and Salvage Corporation. The building was in bad shape internally but still retained some of its architectural features, like an arcaded swimming pool in the basement and the main floor parlor fireplace and double-curved mantel. Thankfully, the building was saved from the wrecking ball and has been renovated since then.

The Skinny Pancake, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, officially opened its first Albany location in the commercial portion of the building in March 2022. They specialize in crepes. burgers, and fresh salads; they got a liquor license in February 2022. The restaurant, with its exposed brick and comfy leather couches, has been called a combination of the styles of Ben and Jerry's and Central Perk (the coffeeshop from the iconic sitcom Friends).

Albany Chamber of Commerce. Albany New York. Albany, NY. Brandow Printing Co., 1912.

O'Brien, Austin N. NRHP Nomination of Young Men's Christian Association, Albany, New York. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1978.

YMCA of the USA. Who We Are, Young Men's Christian Association. January 1st, 2022. Accessed August 6th, 2022. https://www.ymca.org/who-we-are.

Powell, Susie Davidson. "The Skinny Pancake a perfect fit for revitalized downtown Albany." Times Union (Albany) January 26th, 2022. .