YMCA Building (Shreveport, Louisiana)
Historic clubhouse in Shreveport, Louisiana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The YMCA Building is a historic building in downtown Shreveport, Louisiana, built in 1925.[2] The National Register of Historic Places listed the Young Men’s Christian Association structure in 1982.[3]
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YMCA, Downtown Branch | |
Front of the building, left, with twin campaniles | |
  Location within Louisiana  Location within the United States | |
| Location | 400 McNeil Street, Shreveport, Louisiana 71101 |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 32°30′46″N 93°45′05″W |
| Built | 1925 |
| Architect | Clarence W. King |
| Owner | YMCA of Northwest Louisiana |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance Revival |
| Website | www |
| Part of | Shreveport Commercial Historic District (First Boundary Increase) (ID97000437) |
| NRHP reference No. | 91000621 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 28, 1991 |
| Designated CP | May 16, 1997[1] |
History
The YMCA first started as a group in Shreveport in the 1860s but did not formally incorporate until 1922. The next year, the group raised $545,000 (equivalent to $10,298,584 in 2025) to build this building which opened in 1925.[4] Monroe E. Dodd, the First Baptist Church pastor and Edward Jacobs, the National Bank of Shreveport founder, both strongly advocated for the project.[5][2]
In the 1960s, the YMCA added a third and fourth story for new bedrooms and converted the old residences on the second story into exercise rooms.[3] The group stopped renting the rooms though and the floors are now vacant.[6] In 2017, barrels of food from 1963 were found in an unused wing of the building, left over from Cold War Civil Defense preparations.[7]
In recent years, the facility attracts downtown office workers to work out and provides exercise classes.[8][9] In 2020, the YMCA renovated the building which included updating the front desk area and CrossFit room, replacing lockers, and converting the underutilized social room into a yoga and Pilates studio.[2] In addition to the main building, the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana maintains two Shreveport neighborhood branches as of 2024. [10]
Architecture
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The Villa Medici in Rome, completed in 1544, inspired architect Clarence W. King to design the building in an Italian Renaissance Revival style. The four-story building is built using blond brick and cast concrete with quoining along the corners.[5]
Outside, the front facade includes twin rooftop campaniles with a balustrade running between. The ground story has rows of arched opening each with double arched windows with a central colonnette. Between these are oeil-de-boeuf motifs. The main entrance consists of a triple arch opening flanked by pilasters and topped with a segmental pediment. Gold and blue terra cotta decorations highlight both the campaniles and the entrance.[3]
Inside, a central lobby consists of octagonal piers leading up to a plaster mock groin vaulted ceiling. Behind the lobby, is a small cortile with a fountain set in a tiled niche. The rest of the original interior included two gymnasiums, numerous bedrooms upstairs, and a pool in the basement.[3]
