Our founding Fathers, Dr. Frederick W. Owen and Rev. Thomas E.
Souper had a vision for the young men of Morristown..."to have the men
do great things through concentrated actions instead of be lured by evil." The
first meeting was held in the Baptist Church, located at the corner of Park
and Speedwell on the Green, on Friday, January 2, 1874, and lasted until midnight.
The Morristown YMCA was born.
The original Morristown YMCA was located in a rented second floor walkup of
the Woods Estate on Park Place in the center of Morristown. The space consisted
of four rooms: a library, a reading room, a meeting/prayer room, and a social
room. In order to provide more services in better facilities, a building fund
was established and a new location was purchased on January 14, 1881. By this
time a night school had been created to teach men and boys how to read, spell
and do arithmetic. Expenses were covered equally by the Y and the Morristown
Board of Education. The Y was only open during evening hours and only to males.
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That was soon to change. In 1883, Mrs. Jacob L. Sutplen founded the Ladies
Auxiliary which consisted of the several active women who had assisted in raising
over $30,000 for the new facility. This 'branch' of women was instrumental
in many of the Y's functions -- both social and administrative -- yet were
not allowed membership. This changed around the time of World War I when the
building finally opened its doors to women and girls -- but on a part time
basis. The Ladies Auxiliary organized and implmented all the classes offered
to females, and they were only offered limited, exclusive time in the gymnasium.
An interesting note about the gymnasium at this time: it had been described
as one of the most complete gymnasiums to be built in a town of 10,000+ inhabitants
in the country. The room was well ventilated and electrically illuminated.
The adjoining bathrooms offered both tubs and showers with hot and cold water.
Other features included classrooms, dressing and game rooms, and a bowling
alley.
By 1884, the demands of expansion caused the Board of Directors to consider
yet another move. The lot at 13 South Street (now the Palm Grill Restaurant)
was purchased for $3,700, and a building was erected and opened on October 10,
1888.
The new century then inspired a new location. In 1909, the corner lot at 60
Washington Street and Western Avenue was purchased for $14,000, and the new
facility was opened in December 1913. This became the third home for the YMCA.
This brings us to the fourth and current home of the now called Morris Center
YMCA. Located at 79 Horsehill Road in Cedar Knolls, the building was erected
and opened in November 1981. This state of the art facility consisted of an
Olympic sized pool, indoor track above a full gymnasium, four racketball courts,
four locker rooms (two of which with saunas) and much more. Recently in 2001,
thanks to the generosity of many throughout our service area and beyond, we
completed a renovation which upgraded the entire facility and increased our
functionable space from 37,000 sq. feet to 48,000 sq. feet. In addition, in
2002, the property next door at 65 Horsehill was purchased by the Y for our
new Richard F. Blake Children's Center, completing our campus to a total of
13 acres. As history has shown, we continue to grow and improve upon the foundation
in which we were created while everchanging with the times and meeting the
needs of the community.
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