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I was reading the newspaper The Bellaire & Southwestern Texan dated January 5, 1972 and came across an advertisement for the Post Oak Family Center Y.M.C.A. located at 2320 Willowick Road. Anyone remember this place? It was demolished to make way for the River Oaks Baptist School? I wonder if there are any photos of the building around. Spring Activities Program. Something for the entire family at the Post Oak Family Center Y.M.C.A. 2320 Willowick. Fitness courses for men, women, boys, an girls + Expert gymnastic instruction for tots through teens + Competitive gymnastic teams + bridge lessons + Tie making + Yoga + Mother's Day Out + Afterschool child care + Women's self defense + Ballet for girls + Model rocketry club + Guitar lessons for all ages + Dewey Compton on gardening + Little league baseball + Modern dance for girls + Track and soccer for boys and girls + Wrestling for boys + Boxing for boys + Honda mini bike instruction and supervised riding + Spring bus tours to Louisiana and Gardens and Great Smokey Mountains. For complete registration information call the Y office - 622-8573.

I never knew about this! I was browsing the newspaper June 11, 1986 and came across a business ad for Texas Medical Center YMCA Swim & Tennis Center located at 6900 South Main St. I read the Shamrock Hilton Hotel closed, and the YMCA leased (or was donated by the TMC) for a spring/summer season. It was a seasonal YMCA that eventually went away. Here's the article that was released a few months earlier.

I just received a post card I bought off eBay. It is an image of the YMCA building from about the time it was first built. The image is not a photograph. It looks more like a print of a watercolor. It is very neat and I'm glad I have something to remember the 'Y' by. I used to work out there when my office was nearby. I even used to get my hair cut at the barber shop on the first floor. Lately I've been going to the Trotter Y on Augusta.

Now I remember something else from 1963, when I was five years old. I remember my mother taking me to a YMCA on Interstate 610 near Gulfgate Shopping Center/Mall for swimming lessons. I remember that the building was at least five stories high. It that place still there? Chet Cuccia

The people at the Downtown YMCA told me that they have bought a lot a couple of blocks away and will move locations in the next couple of years. It will be nice to have a newer, updated YMCA, but I wonder what will happen to the old building?

Texas Medical Center YMCA is excellent. And a great value. No complaints, excellent caring staff, great educational component.

Hey does anyone know what they are building?

It's always good to see the occasional Chronicle architecture article. Nov. 29, 2005, 8:35PM ARCHITECTURE Early icons suffer the great collapse By SCOT BROOKS Special To The Chronicle In August, the YWCA off Waugh closed its doors. Its building, an inspiring inside-the-Loop landmark, is for sale and is almost certainly doomed. YWCA Masterson At 3615 Willia St. It's another tragedy in a town beset by architectural indifference. Designed by Taft Architects and built in 1982, the Masterson YWCA was an early icon in the Post-modern movement. The building won a national Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects — a big deal for a small building. The long hall of a structure exhibited a large presence in little space, and its clever indoor-to-outdoor pool, with giant glass garage doors opening onto an adjacent park, was one of the city's best places to swim. The building's front was a classically inspired billboard of repeated arches and a blue tile grid, while the more functional back seemed to come apart into large modern boxes separated by alleylike slots. And come apart it has. Visiting on the building's last day of operation, I was dismayed to see how the past 23 years had treated it. I'd heard that high maintenance costs led the Masterson Y to close its doors, and the work the building needed was clearly visible. But the building showed more wear than empty warehouses I've surveyed, some of which had been abandoned for as long as this facility was occupied. This was a building exhibiting rapid decay. In Houston, we're used to seeing historical buildings slated for destruction. But the Masterson Y's story is different: It's about an entire generation of buildings that may never make it to historical status. Link to Chronicle article

ahh-the YMCA..i remember when Westland Y on Fondren was in a temporary building and about the last thing you saw before S. Main. We had the 1st baseball team there called the SpitFires..right as the YMCA logo was changing to just "Y"

http://www.upperkirby.org/index.php?option...35&Itemid=1 A new YMCA is appearing in Upper Kirby. Any thoughts? Are there people here who will have less of a commute to the gym?

We're Opening a YMCA at Reliant City! Gallery Furniture and the YMCA of Greater Houston Team Up to Help Hurricane Victims Houston, TX. In an effort to serve the thousands of individuals, children and families housed in the Astrodome and nearby Reliant Center, the YMCA of Greater Houston is opening a YMCA on-site at Reliant City. "The YMCA is about family, serving people, and being there in good times and in bad, said Clark Baker, YMCA of Greater Houston President and CEO. "This is part of our mission." Located under massive tents in the parking lot on Reliant Center's east side, the area housing the Gallery Furniture YMCA has been dubbed, "Town Square," and hosts several venues for fun, games and social activities, including: basketball hoops, video games, inflatable slides and bouncing rooms, a playground, board and card games and more. Town Square has been divided into specific areas based on age-appropriate activities. Funded through generous donations made by Gallery Furniture, Town Square has been created to provide hurricane victims a physical and psychological break from the shelter of the Astrodome or Reliant Center. "We cannot begin to understand the depths of emotion or the losses that have been suffered by the hurricane victims," Baker said. "Many of these families will not be able to return home for months if ever, and we want to be able to provide children and families with an escape from their tragedy, even if it is only temporary." YMCAs have a long-standing commitment of reaching out to serve people far from home and in their time of direst need. Stemming from service work to soldiers during the Civil War and World War I, the World War II era featured new lengths to soothe the human spirit with compassion and tenderness. In addition to assisting in the development of the USO, during World War II, the National Council of YMCAs (now the YMCA of the USA) joined with YMCAs around the world to assist some 6 million prisoners-of-war in 36 nations. Ys worked with displaced persons and refugees as well, and sent both workers and money abroad after the war to help rebuild damaged YMCA buildings. YMCAs also worked with the 10 internment camps set up in 1942 to hold the 110,000 Japanese Americans held during the war. The bulk of the Y's work consisted of clubs and camping for boys in the camps. In the words of David M. Tatsuno, an internee and former member of the Japanese Y in San Francisco: "The Y never forgot us." ( more) More recently, YMCAs have responded in times of national tragedy and disaster. In the days and weeks following the events of September 11, 2001, the YMCAs of Greater New York and Metropolitan Washington provided housing, respite, grief counseling, and emergency child care for emergency workers, stranded tourists and hospital staff, while coordinating blood donation and other relief efforts of the American Red Cross and Salvation Army, with an outpouring of support, funding, and volunteers from YMCAs across the country. Today in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Baton Rouge, Mobile and throughout the United States, YMCAs are working diligently to tend to those affected, to support and to distribute durable goods, volunteer manpower and financial backing to the YMCAs on the ground working to rebuild the spirits, minds and bodies of the kids, families and communities impacted. "Our mission in our communities can be summed up in the Y's core values-caring, honesty, respect, responsibility, and faith," said Clark Baker, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Houston. "In serving our neighbors in need, we all must be honest with ourselves and understand that we have a shared responsibility to care for and comfort our fellow Americans-our fellow human beings-and help them restore their faith and live with the dignity and respect they deserve." Employees from more than 30 Houston-area YMCAs will staff the Gallery Furniture YMCA and the entire Town Square complex on a volunteer basis, from 9am to 7pm daily while the need for shelter at the Astrodome and Reliant Center exists. Town Square and the Gallery Furniture YMCA will open today at 5pm.