Y.W.C.A.
Known Name(s)
Y.W.C.A.
Address
263 Golden Hill St. Bridgeport, CT
Establishment Type(s)
YWCA
Physical Status
Extant
Detailed History
The YWCA opened its first Bridgeport location in 1895 to improve the physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual welfare of young rural women as they acclimated to their new urban lifestyles. Membership and support services at the main YWCA were strictly limited to white women, with Black women organizing their own Phyllis Wheatley Branch (see the YWCA Phillis Wheatley Branch, Bridgeport, CT). However, Black women continued to resist segregation within the broader YWCA.
In 1937, the feminist and Civil Rights activist Dr. Dorothy Height began working for the YWCA in Harlem. She later rose to prominence within the YWCA national organization where she began advocating for desegregation. Despite initial pushback, the organization soon began implementing the "One YWCA" policy, which sought to integrate the organization on both the local and national level. In 1942, the Bridgeport YWCA was desegregated. That year, the main YWCA offices and the Phyllis Wheatley Branch moved into a new and improved facility located at 263 Golden Hill Street. The YWCA adopted a new mission to help working women in Bridgeport regardless of skin color, and the site on Golden Hill Street appeared in The Green Book by 1949.
Listed as a hotel, it carried on the tradition of its predecessor in providing accommodation to African American travelers and visitors. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the YWCA underwent several major changes. In the early 1970s, the facility formed three major branches: the Center for Racial Justice, the Women's Center, and the Center for Creative Leisure. In the 1980s, the YWCA again changed its mission to focus on abused women and victims of domestic violence and moved to a new location on 753 Fairfield Ave. By 1995, the organization had completely dropped its association with the YWCA and rebranded itself as the Center for Family Justice.
Listed in the Golden Hill National Register Historic District
