YOUNG MEN’S INSTITUTE BUILDING OF THE YMCA

222 Bowery
Bradford L. Gilbert
1884–1885

This was the first YMCA to open in New York City and originally was called the Young Men’s Institute. It was built to provide young men with shelter and physical and social enrichment as an alternative to the overcrowded flophouse accommodations that dominated the Bowery. It remained a YMCA until 1932, when it was converted to lofts/residential space subsequently inhabited by many world-renowned artists. It is not common for an institutional building to be designed in the Queen Anne style—a style usually reserved for domestic architecture. This building has been a New York City landmark since 1998.

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