File:YWCA Gymnasium postcard, circa 1914 (MOHAI 11905).jpg

English: In 1894, a group of 28 women founded the Seattle YWCA to help "the working girl" toward self support. Initially, they opened a lounge and a cafeteria offering 10 cent lunches for working women. Turn-of-the-century Seattle was rife with bawdy houses and saloons, and from its early history, the YWCA organized clubs to keep young women and girls "interested in the best things." Membership was open to any "moral" girl or woman without regard to race or religion.

The gymnasium pictured here was located in the new YWCA headquarters building opened in 1914 at Fifth Avenue and Seneca Street in downtown Seattle. Working women throughout the city had made contributions and canvassed businesses for funds in order to build the eight-story brick building that housed a tearoom, a cafeteria, Turkish baths, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a hotel, clubrooms, and a vocational school. Today the building still serves as the Seattle-King County-Snohomish County YWCA headquarters, which focuses on youth and childcare programs and on issues like homelessness and domestic violence.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Gymnasiums--Washington (State)--Seattle; Photographic postcards; Young Women's Christian associations--Washington (State)--Seattle