St. Antoine YMCA Site

In 1909 Joseph L. Hudson, founder of mercantile establishments known through the nation, and Dr. Adolph G. Studer, general secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Detroit, together with several leading black citizens, established the Douglass Institute, forerunner of the St. Antoine Street Branch YMCA. Organized in September 1920, the St. Antoine Branch provided community services through religious, educational, and recreational activities. Construction of a building, which once stood here, began in 1924, just four blocks from the downtown YMCA where blacks were not allowed membership. The new building was well-equipped and on Sunday afternoons the gymnasium was set up for eminent national leaders to come and speak on current local and national problems. Many blacks of Detroit in the 1920s had roots in the St. Antoine “Y”.