Collection Scope and Contents This collection documents the first school building for Springfield College, at the time the School for Christian Workers, located on the corner of Sherman and State Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. Included in the collection are photographs and negatives of the outside of the building dating from around 1885 to 1946. Interior shots of the building, including one of the few photographs of the gymnasium where James Naismith created basketball as well as pictures of the early library and...

Abstract The Springfield Massachusetts YMCA was one of the first YMCAs to be established in North America after Montreal and Boston. The first meeting was held on May 3rd, 1852 at the Old First Church on Court Square. Soon disbanded for lack of support, it was not until the cities third attempt in the early 1880s, with the creation of three separate branches; a Railroad YMCA, the Armory Hill YMCA, and a Central/Downtown Springfield Branch, that the Springfield YMCA was here to stay. The Railroad YMCA...