Interesting find.
[ref: YMCA publication ‘San Francisco: 100 Years by the Golden Gate]:
There was a revival of interest in YMCA work for military personnel in the early months of 1908 in anticipation of the scheduled visit of the United States Fleet to San Francisco in May of that year while on its world-encircling cruise. In December 1907, shortly before the Fleet began its voyage, Admiral Dewey wrote to the Army and Navy Department of the Y.M.C.A. in New York City saying:
“It occurs to me as the departure of the Fleet for the Pacific approaches, that a grand work lies ready for the YMCA to inaugurate for the aid of the enlisted men. Could not some place be secured in San Francisco where our men would find friends to look after their welfare, lodging, etc.? In short, to do the same estimable work that is now being done in the Brooklyn Navy YMCA?”
In April 1908, a three-story building was rented at 52-58 Beale Street, for a 3 month period, operating as the Navy YMCA San Francisco. The temporary accommodations and recreational facilities were met with such enthusiasm by visiting naval personnel that sentiment was at once expressed for continuance as a permanent centre. The San Francisco Chronicle, reported on 29th May:
“In the nature of things, naval men cannot provide such accommodations for themselves. They are here today and there tomorrow. The Government could provide them, but that is not what is wanted. If these resorts were Government institutions, they would be official institutions, and the one thing that Jack desires when on shore is to get away from everything having the semblance of officialdom. It is rest to get away from it. And if he knows himself he will not go where there is any chance that he will be reminded of it. It is, therefore, one of the duties which the people of every seaport owe to their defenders to provide for them a resort where they will be perfectly comfortable, out of the way of even a shadow of authority, and where they may rendezvous when on shore in a respectable environment and in a club house of their own.”
The committee in charge of the temporary centre offered to turn over all of their equipment, provided a branch of the Navy Y.M.C.A. be officially established in San Francisco. The offer was accepted and the San Francisco Branch of the Navy Y.M.C.A. was officially opened on 6 August 1908 on the upper floor of a large building at 84 Market Street, and then additional space via an annex and an additional building at 82 Market Street.
Although opened as a Navy Branch of the Y.M.C.A., the centre ministered to Army personnel as well, and the name was changed to the Army and Navy Y.M.C.A. soon after the branch was officially established. It continued operating at Market Street until 1st February 1917, when it moved into much better quarters at 225/226 Embarcadero. Those premises had to be vacated in 1989 when the Embarcadero building was purchased by Kimpton Hotels for conversion into the Harbor Court Hotel in 1991.
