A Moment in our History: Focus on Physical Well-Being

In 1900 our YWCA O'ahu was still in its infancy and our board of directors and staff were especially busy as they continued to search for a larger space for the association to meet the needs of its growing membership.

Honolulu women enjoying the parlor of the YWCA office. Membership grew fast in the first year.

Local paper describing the comfort provided by the YWCA rooms in the Elite Building. (The Honolulu Advertiser, August 1, 1900.)

One major reason for the move – to create space for women to exercise.

Almost as soon as the first YWCA office was set up in the Elite Building on Hotel Street, our board found that:

“No rooms in the Elite Building are adaptable to the Physical work as there is no water for the shower baths.”

Our decisive and responsive board quickly took action – they looked for a more desirable place. In the fall of the same year, the YWCA  moved to the Progress Building on Fort and Beretania. Our minutes relate that women and girls of Honolulu were “anxious for physical training.”

Progress Building (now called Model Progress Building) on Fort and Beretania.

Class announcements often appeared in local papers, and those seeking to exercise rushed to our office to register.

This particular announcement below is about basketball, which the paper says, “is considered one of the best means for physical development of women.” (The Honolulu Advertiser: January 2, 1902 ). As we needed an even larger space for a class like this, we also accessed the YMCA gymnasium.

Some of the early classes also included “Indian club swinging”and “Swedish movements” as well as barbell exercises and work on “the heavy apparatus.”

Although we did not have our own pool until Julia Morgan gave us one at Laniākea in 1927, swim instruction was soon added to our offerings.

Instructions and swim meets were held across town including at Castle Pool in Waikiki.

YWCA’s Chief Swimming Instructor giving tips on crawl. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin: July 9, 1919.)

Swim instruction provided at Laniākea pool.

Through our class offerings, a growing number of women and girls of Honolulu developed an interest in such physical activities. Providing opportunities to them was part of the vision of our founding sisters, and they sure made that happen step by step.

More than a century later, the health and wellness and aquatics programs remain as part of our legacy programs.

-Noriko Namiki, YWCA O‘ahu CEO