YWCA building a trove of memories
As the 89-year-old YWCA building at 42 West Maiden Street in Washington undergoes renovation as the new headquarters for Transitional Paths to Independent Living (TRPIL) and community center, many local people are recalling their experiences there.
Their memories span multiple generations and topics that range from women’s rights and social activism to recreation and romance.
The first of three phases of the renovation is expected to be completed in October, said Joann Naser, development director for TRPIL, a non-profit organization that advocates for the civil rights of people with disabilities and promotes independent living.
A rich history
The founding of the Young Women’s Christian Association in 1909 predates the building by 20 years, according to architect Rick Zatta, who researched the history of the building for TRPIL.

Photo courtesy of TRPIL
Photo courtesy of TRPIL
From left, Blanche Moffat was the first president of the YWCA; Mrs. L.D. Sargent was YWCA president in 1930; Mrs. P.L. Stewart was a National YWCA Board member; and Mrs. George Warrick was YWCA president in 1939.
Founders Etta Reed and Jane Hobbs were pioneers of the women’s movement. By 1910, the YWCA had 700 female members. The first home for the organization was 50 East Beau Street. Construction of a permanent home was funded by a donation of $50,000 from Madeleine LeMoyne Reed, granddaughter of Francis Julius LeMoyne, renowned local physician and abolitionist.
Total construction cost was “close to $215,000,” according to a newspaper account at the time.
The building opened on Sunday, October 27, 1929. It was to be a fateful week. Two days later, the stock market crashed.
Designed in the Elizabethan Revival style by architect R. Garey Dickson, the YWCA is the only building of its type in the city of Washington. Although the building lacked attention since closing about a decade ago, its grandeur and structure are intact, writes Zatta. Few original features have been altered.
The renovation is retaining the building’s historic character, such as the multi-colored brick façade and interior decorative details. Upon entering the building through its double oak doors, the first sight is the central staircase with its ornate iron railing, and the main parlor with its carved limestone fireplace.
“Gentlemen would wait in the parlor to visit the ladies who resided there,” explained Zatta. His father was one of those gentlemen.
“In those days, a single woman who was working as a nurse, teacher or in other professions did not stay in a hotel or apartment,” explained Naser. “If they were not living with family, they would live at the Y.”
For several years, the Female Seminary of Washington used the YWCA building as their “second home” for plays, dinners and meetings, Zatta writes.
Little known fact: Maiden Street was named for these women.
Social hub
The heart of the building is its auditorium/gymnasium, where numerous social events were held throughout the years. Like many couples of their generation, my own parents had their wedding reception there in 1946. Although the prohibition years had passed, there was no liquor.
Flanked at one end by a stage with red velvet curtains, the 70-foot-long hall sits below a decorative balcony with ironwork that mirrors the main staircase.
During the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, teens from local high schools flocked to the Y for its weekly dances. Bobby Vinton, Perry Como and other famous entertainers performed.

Photo courtesy of TRPIL
Photo courtesy of TRPIL
Teens socialize at the YWCA during a 1950s dance.
Former Washington mayor Sonny Spossey, 80, graduated from Trinity in 1955 and fondly remembers going to dances and record hops at the Y.
“The dances brought young people together in a positive way,” he said. “It was a meeting place. Big dance bands – that was my speed. Good to dance to, Jitterbug … slow dances.”
Spossey didn’t meet his wife there – they met at a Wash High dance – but they went to the Y dances.
“I liked the gym,” he said. “It wasn’t huge like Wash High’s was.”
Spossey, who serves on the fundraising committee for the building renovation, said his support of TRPIL’s mission began during his early years as mayor in the 1980s, when Open Doors for the Handicapped, a group that later affiliated with TRPIL, “opened my eyes to how successful these organizations can be.”
Gene Steratore, 55, who recently retired as a NFL referee and is owner of Steratore Sanitary Supply in Eighty Four, said that his parents first met in 1956 or 1957, not at a Wednesday evening YWCA dance, but “uptown” earlier in the day.
“That Wednesday evening was my father’s first appearance at a YWCA dance, but certainly not his last. I believe it was the second time they met at the dance that my father gathered the courage to ask my mother to dance. And, as they say, the rest is history. They went on to marry, and be blessed with seven children,” Steratore said.
Ron Foil, 72, transportation manager at TRPIL, graduated from Immaculate Conception High School in 1963, married his childhood classmate and sweetheart Penny Allen in 1964, and went to Vietnam in 1968.
“We all went for the bands. The Flamingos, Bo Diddley, lots of big names. And the DJs. Porky Chedwick was there and Clark Race too, I think,” Foil said. “In the ’50s and ’60s, all the high school kids went there. The boys went together. The girls went together. We all met up there.”
Once the gymnasium is restored, he said, “it would be great to have a nostalgia night sock hop there.”
Lessons big
and small
“At one time, almost everybody learned to swim at the Y,” said Liz Collins, who served as program director for social service initiatives during the 1970s and ’80s, and later as a board member.
At age 10 in 1963, I was one of those kids. Although I barely passed the exit exam – the instructor jumped into the deep end to rescue me – I earned my Red Cross card as a beginning swimmer and gained an important life skill.
Such community services were central to the Y’s mission, Collins said. She mentioned the infant swim program, in which babies as young as six months frolicked with their mothers.
“The warm water pool was good for babies,” she said.
The Y also made the pool accessible to people with physical disabilities with a lifting device, a use of adaptive equipment that was not common at the time.
In the 1970s, the YWCA expanded its scope to families, said Collins. In addition to swimming, programs in ballet, karate, theater, sports and music were offered.
Collins said the Y also was engaged with the serious issues, many of which remain on the national agenda today. The organization sponsored an initiative on gun abuse in the 1970s and 1980s that was criticized by guns-rights advocates. Collins recalled trying to encourage dialogue, saying, “It’s about the abuse of guns, not the guns.”
The Y started the area’s first women’s shelter during those years, with six or seven beds in a nearby rented apartment. The organization also engaged the community in discussion of racism.
“This was at the time when the YWCA adopted a resolution to eliminate racism where it exists by any means necessary,” said Collins. “The NAACP gave an award to the Y for its work.”
Yet, in its earlier years, the YWCA itself may have been less-than-accepting, said Naser of TRPIL.
“It was reported to me that African-Americans were not welcome to the building in the 1950s,” she said. “As we move forward, we want the building to be welcome and accessible to all people.”
Cindy Fleet Patterson, 60, of North Strabane, and her late mother Delcina Fleet both served on the Y board. Delcina, who joined the board in 1970, was involved in the women’s shelter and other initiatives. As a child, Patterson swam, played volleyball, attended plays and heard international speakers at the Y, then followed her mother by joining the board in the late 1980s. Patterson’s two daughters, now young adults, attended preschool at the Y.

Pool
Cara Lytton and her children in the YWCA pool circa 2000.
New beginning
TRPIL purchased the YWCA building in 2012. When the first phase of renovation – about half of the square footage of the building – is completed in October, it will include a welcome area, offices, meeting rooms, direct care worker training center and internet café. A glass addition on the eastern side of the building will accommodate the arrival and departure of transportation vehicles under a roof, and include a state-of-the art elevator.
The second phase of the project will begin in the spring. It will focus on the restoration of the gymnasium/auditorium for public use. The third phase of construction will transform the former preschool rooftop play area into a meeting space with expansive views.
All areas of the building will be completely wheelchair accessible. The pool will not be restored.
Since 2014, TRPIL has raised $3.6 million of the $4.3 million needed for the renovation. Major contributors are the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, Washington County Local Share Account, Washington County Redevelopment Authority, Massey Charitable Trust, FISA Foundation, Allegheny Foundation, PNC Charitable Trust and Washington Financial Bank.
A small museum of memorabilia on the main floor will preserve the storied past of the building. TRPIL continues to gather stories from community members and welcomes donations to the restoration fund. For information or to contribute, contact Joann Naser at 724-223-5115 or jnaser@trpil.com.
Washington native Tina Calabro is the volunteer program manager of the Italian Heritage Collection at Citizens Library.

An architect’s rendering of what the exterior of the former YWCA will look like when renovations are completed to make the building the home of TRPIL.