Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
Date closed / demolished
(Day, Month, & Year are approximate.)
Timeline:
- 1924: Foundation stone for the main building is laid on 21st January:
Later place(s) at this location
Photos that show this Place
1924
1924
1925
Comments
Built 1925 - opened 1926
Fig. 19. European YMCA, Salisbury Rd. Opened in 1926.
see photo
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/JLMcPhersonHKYMCA.html
http://www.facebook.com/#!/ph
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=968865&id=689768775
a fair amount of memories from the 'y' documented here, the short back and sides from the barbers, the comics from the bookshop or the coke floats from the cafeteria, this place was definitely part of growing up in hong kong in the seventies!
The YMCA website says 1992
The YMCA website says 1992 for the opening of the new building. Does that sound right?
That sounds right. I was
That sounds right. I was going there for Cantonese evening classes in 1993, and it all seemed very new then.
I've added a guess at 1990 for the demolition date of this older building.
YMCA
spent a lot of time at the Y back in late 70s during my teens, both as a member and later, as a youth program worker. in late 70s, the Y still preserved most of the building as seen in the 1927 pic except they added a new highrise attached to the old building. however, i love the old building so much more than the new. the West Hall, Roof Garden (on the 5th floor). i loved the "Roof Garden" which had a clear view to the harbor and HK Island. some of my friends played soccer or cricket on the empty lot where the rail track was once located (this was before they built the Science Museum). i remember the foundation stone well, the stone was at the Salisbury Rd front entrance. to the right of the entrance was a little barber shop and to the left a cafeteria. on the second floor was a library and a dining room. there were quite a number of retired British servicemen lived on the 3rd and 4th floor of the old wing. i remember them well, they all had some unique personality. finally, the most impressive part of the old building was an old 1910s elevator. exactly the kind of elevator shown in many Hollywood movies depicting 1920's Chicago. i left HKG in 1981 and when i returned to the Y in 1998, everything was gone....