YMCA Building

The building was raised shortly after the end of World War II, on the parcel purchased in the 1930s by the international organisation YMCA.

The realisation of the project itself (construction period of 1948-1951), its authors being the architects from Warsaw – Stefan Koziński and Bohdan Damięcki, was possible thanks to the help of the American and Canadian organisation.

The building attracts with a brick façade (rather typical of the YMCA buildings in the world at that time), a series of porthole-like windows and the bold application of glass bricks on the side of Żeromskiego Street.

The expressive, avant-garde shape of the building, with streamlined corners, is significantly different from the design of the YMCA building in Warsaw (designed by Antoni Jawornicki) created in the spirit of art-déco in the early 1930s. Both buildings had to meet the international standards of the organisation, and also reflected the trends in modernist architecture in Poland and in the world. The YMCA building at 26 Żeromskiego Street in Gdynia is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and innovative designs of modernist architecture in Poland at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s. Both architects already had very successful realisations in Gdynia, designed in the spirit of avant-garde trends of modernism of the 1930s. The most famous are the Polish Sailor's House  – currently the Navigational Faculty of the Maritime University (co-author Bohdan Damięcki) and the Bloch-Mazalon Apartment House at 122 Świętojańska Street (co-author Stefan Koziński).

It is worth remembering: the building currently also houses a youth hostel offering cheap accommodation for young people.

A few words about the history of the YMCA in Gdynia and internationally

About the history of the YMCA organisation, including its Gdynia thread – tells the paper by Mariusz Kardas, PhD, "The Outline of the History of the YMCA in Gdynia" (5th Conference on Cultural and Civilizational Identity, organised by the Academy of Social Communication in Gdynia, under the patronage of the Mayor of Gdynia, Dr. Wojciech Szczurek, on the occasion of the 84th anniversary of granting Gdynia the city rights, 16 February 2010, at 10:00 AM in Gdynia, 46 Armii Krajowej Street / room 05).

The YMCA is an international organisation based on ecumenical values, founded in London in 1844, by Sir George Williams. The YMCA is the origin of the scout movement, and people associated with this organisation invented such sports as basketball and volleyball. The YMCA in Gdynia was established in 1932 and was liquidated by the communists in 1951.

The YMCA came to Poland with the Haller Army, providing charitable assistance to the victims of the war. – In Gdynia, the organisers were Julian Rommel, Admiral Józef Unrug, and Antoni Wójcicki; sports activities were arranged in the barracks (formerly serving as alcohol warehouses) at no. 41 10 Lutego Street, near the railway station. The organisation had numerous patrons: ZUS (Social Insurance Institution), Komunalna Kasa Oszczędności (Municipal Savings Bank), Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (National Development Bank), etc., so it was able to quickly take over the Kaszubski Hotel as the premises. Classes were conducted in various interest groups: billiard, chess, table tennis, tourism, languages. There was also a sailing and ski clubs.

The parcel where the current YMCA is standing was bought before the war, and the building was raised immediately after the war, when the YMCA centre in Gdynia resumed operations with the help of American and Canadian organisations. Unfortunately, it was seen as a tool of American imperialism, and so the organisation stopped operating. The Gdynia YMCA also had a summer camp in Wieżyca, since 1937. Its wartime history is very interesting, and shortly after the war it was taken over by the shipyard, and the "Bałtyk" holiday resort was created.