YWCA, Phillis Wheatley Branch

United States historic place


YWCA, Phillis Wheatley Branch
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


38°38′4″N 90°12′59″W / 38.63444°N 90.21639°W / 38.63444; -90.21639
Area	less than one acre
Built	1927
Architect	LaBeaume & Klein
Architectural style	Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.	84002694^[1]
Added to NRHP	July 24, 1984

The YWCA, Phillis Wheatley Branch in St. Louis, Missouri is a building dating from 1927. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.^[1]

The branch was founded in 1911 and named for Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American poet. It was only the fifth YWCA for African-Americans.

The YWCA was a center of intellectual life in the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood. The Fisk Jubilee Singers performed at Wheatley in 1916, and W.E.B. Du Bois gave a lecture in 1922. Maya Angelou, Mary McLeod Bethune and Butterfly McQueen all visited or stayed in the YWCA's hotel rooms.^[2]

The building was constructed in 1927 for the St. Louis Women's Christian Association, also known as the Women's Christian Home, which was first organized in 1868. In 1941 they sold the building to the YWCA.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ "YWCA St. Louis Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Historic Phyllis Wheatley Branch". YWCA. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
^ Stiritz, Mary M. (1983). "Phyllis Wheatly Branch YWCA" (PDF). NRHP Nomination Form. Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved November 22, 2013.