YMCA in Downtown Miami (1918 – 1978)

The history of the first YMCA in downtown Miami which was constructed and operated from Short Street for sixty years.

Cover: YMCA Building in 1920 from McAllister Hotel

Sixty years is a good run for a building in Miami. Many of the city’s early twentieth century structures had a far shorter lifespan. When the YMCA building at 40 NE Third Avenue, aka Short Street, was opened in 1918, it was the culmination of a community-wide effort to construct an institution for the betterment of the city.

By the time it closed and was razed in 1978, sixty years after it opened, it was referred to as the ‘Old Gray Lady’ whose time had passed. John Harold, the Miami Herald staff writer who covered the demolition, summed up the sentiment of the day as “Miami’s old-fashioned downtown ‘Y’ had outlived its usefulness.”

While the YMCA organization still operates in and around the Miami metropolitan area, the loss of the ‘Old Gray Lady’ left Miami’s Short Street missing a symbol of early Miami’s innovative spirit to address problems. What began with an observation by a concerned winter resident led to a city-wide campaign to construct an institution that served the community for six decades.