YMCA of Austin history

In 1954, for example, the Austin Y claimed a total of 18,000 program and membership participants - impressive numbers for its first full year of operation.

Yet by May of 1967, the YMCA Board of Directors had taken note of another distinction, albeit a dubious one.

Additional funds were raised by selling the Bremond House in 1968 to the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, which occupies the building to this day.

Adams’ careful guidance that the TownLake Branch was built in 1969.

Upon its opening on September 14, 1970, the TownLake Branch YMCA was widely heralded as leading the cutting-edge of contemporary fitness and community facilities.

When he originally signed on in 1971 as Physical Director, the organization had yet to establish the breadth of activities now found at Y branches.

After his initial donation he continued to serve on its Board of Directors for many years, and at the time of his death in 1980, was a member of its Advisory Board.

“It really had no organized program,” recalled Cawley in an American-Statesman profile at the time of his departure from the Y in December of 1981. “It was a facility-oriented, walk in and shoot baskets sort of place.”

The passion for a pool became all-consuming. “Austin is one of the largest, if not the largest communities in the country where the Y doesn’t have a pool,” Kenton told the Austin Business Journal in January of 1988 after yet another failed capital campaign to build a pool.

That initial Partner of Youth campaign in 1989 created a momentum that has led to a string of triumphs over the past decades:

In 1991, the YMCA of Austin opened the Southwest Family Branch in Oak Hill.

In 1993, the long-awaited TownLake natatorium opened, boosting YMCA membership by 40% within the first year, and the Southwest YMCA Preschool opened adjacent to the Southwest Branch.

In 1994 came the formation of the Child Development Branch (now called the Program Services Branch), a new concept in non-facility-based management, designed to oversee Afterschool Child Care, Day Camp, Youth Sports and other Y programs;

1997 saw the construction of a new Metropolitan Office facility adjacent to TownLake and the opening of the North Park YMCA to serve North Central Austin;

The opening of the East Communities YMCA in 2000 signaled the completion of a grueling six-year, $4.7 million capital campaign that pushed the organization to new heights and brought the first facility of its kind to the residents of East Austin.

In 2002, the Northwest Family YMCA opened to an overwhelming reception, pushing past 7,000 members within its first six months of operation.

As a volunteer-led nonprofit organization, the Austin Y provided more than $2.5 in financial assistance to area neighbors in 2019.