Seamen's House YMCA photographs

Founded in 1921 as the Merchant Seamen’s Branch, this operation was dedicated to providing services to the sailors and crews of the U.S. Merchant Marine. In 1931, a large building was constructed at 550 West 20th Street, and the Seamen’s House clientele became more international. By the 1950s, Seamen’s House had weathered World War II and an influx of Coast Guard sailors, and had merged the operations of the Seamen’s House with those of the American Seamen’s Friend Society and the Seamen’s Christian Association. All the services, such as the pool, movie screenings, and books from library, were free. The YMCA charged only for rooms and meals.

By the mid-1960s, a decline in merchant shipping and other social factors combined to reduce the need for special services for seamen. At the same time, the state of New York began inquiries about the 1931 building and its adjacent laundry. The financial situation of Seamen’s House, coupled with the apparent decline in the need for its special mission, encouraged the Board of Directors to sell the property, realizing $2 million from the state in February of 1967. Seamen’s House moved to West 34th Street, adjacent to the Sloane House YMCA branch

After the move a number of alternatives to providing services to seamen were explored, including merging with the British Merchant Navy Club, and offering non-residential services through the new Port of New York terminal building. By 1970, the possibility of moving to the McBurney branch, located at 215 West 23rd Street, was introduced. The branch began serving seamen out of a “mobile unit”, which visited ships in port. By 1972 Seamen’s House, now officially referred to as the International Seamen’s Center, had relocated its offices and some programming to the McBurney YMCA, with a increasing emphasis on mobile services and ship visits. In 1974, merger talks began in earnest, and the Seamen’s House YMCA was formally absorbed into the McBurney YMCA.

The Brooklyn Association also operated a branch for sailors that opened in 1918 in a converted church in the Red Hook section and moved next door into a new building in 1927. The new building was constructed with funds donated in 1919 by Mrs. James Harvey Williams as a memorial to her husband. Known as the Bethelship Seamen's Branch, it closed and was sold in 1948 because of changing demographics and shipping industry economics. A vestige of the mission to provide services to the men and boys of the sea remains in the Prospect Park branch’s Seafarer’s Safe House, a twelve-unit affordable residential program in Brooklyn for retired sailors.

(Information taken from The YMCA at 150: A History of the YMCA of Greater New York, 1852-2002by Pamela Bayless, 2002; and from An Event on Mercer Street,by Terry Donoghue, 1951; and from History of the Brooklyn and Queens Young Men's Christian Association, 1853-1949by E. Clark Worman, 1952; and the YMCA Seamen's House records.)