Young Women's Christian Association (Cambridge, Mass.)

In June 1891, members of the Cambridgeport branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union established the YWCA in Cambridge "to promote the temporal, moral, and religious welfare of the young women of Cambridge." The organization received its charter and was incorporated in February 1892.

The YWCA's first concern was to provide inexpensive, safe accommodation for women who were newly employed, strangers, or transients. This was achieved by the purchase, in 1897, of the Pray Estate, 11 Temple Street. The "genteel" location of Central Square was preferred to the "far too dangerous" area near Harvard Square, according to YWCA historian Frances Donovan. Further residences were purchased at 144 Austin Street and 7 Temple Street (1902), and 5 Temple St. (1905); in 1911 the present headquarters was built at 7 Temple Street by the architectural firm of Newhall and Blevins. Administrative offices, program facilities, and lodgings for working women were provided, and a few rooms set aside for short stays for the homeless. Extensive additions and renovations to the building were carried out in 1954 and 1961 by the firm of Anderson and Beckwith.

The programs offered initially by the YWCA included music, dressmaking, cooking, Bible study, watercolors, German, hygiene, and physical culture. This focus on education, physical education and health has continued, although new programs have been adopted, adapted, and dropped to meet changing needs.

In the 1890s vocational courses in millinery, dressmaking, nursing, cooking, shorthand, and typing were popular; vocational guidance was offered after 1926.

From 1899 to 1928 the Y maintained an Employment Office for domestic help and a Woman's Exchange, where locally made crafts and handwork were sold. Youth programs, the Wives' Club with day care center, and senior citizen programs have been added over the years; and most recently a Woman's film series. The facilities for physical education were expanded in 1961 with the construction of the swimming pool; a barn in Marshfield first loaned in 1944, became the summer day camp. Margaret Fuller House on Cherry Street was purchased in 1902 to be an area recreation center, and became an independent settlement house in 1944. War work in both World War I and II concentrated on entertainment of troops stationed in the greater Boston area. The YWCA has sponsored programs of community and civic interest: study groups on public affairs have issued reports on legislation, social trends, and racial integration, and committees have cooperated with the local League of Women Voters to encourage voter registration.

The Cambridge YWCA is self-governing; it is administered by a volunteer Board of Directors, which appoints committees of volunteers that have both consultative and administrative functions. A small professional staff is headed by an Executive Secretary. The total budget of the YWCA was originally funded by membership fees, benefits, lectures, and bazaars. Beginning in 1938 the budget was in part funded by United Community Services, and since 1974 by the United Way.

The Cambridge YWCA has always been non-sectarian in practice and philosophy. Members of the Board were selected from seven major branches of the Protestant church: Universalist, Unitarian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist, Swedenborgian, and Congregational. The YWCA offered Bible study and prayer meetings, but avoided competition with local churches, believing its primary function to be the practical application of Christian principles. It delayed affiliation with the national organization until 1935 when the National YWCA's statement of purpose became more broad and inclusive.