As we were walking along 34th Street I notice this plaque on the side of a building. It’s obviously suffered over the years and I couldn’t read much of it. It was, however, possible to pick out the words “William Sloane Building”. This caught my attention because of the name William Sloane and Walter Law, the founder of my village, Briarcliff Manor, NY. (See: A visit to Merestead – Overview and the posts which follow).
It seems that William S. Sloane was heavily involved with the YMCA.
The building on which the plaque is placed is the Sloane House YMCA, also known as William Sloane House YMCA, at 356 West 34th Street in Manhattan. It was the largest residential YMCA building in the nation. It was sold in 1993 for $5 million and converted to rental apartments later. For more information on the William Sloane House see: The Sloane House YMCA – Infernal Machine on glasscapsule media archive
It’s practically impossible to read the words on the plaque, but I managed to find a description on the Historical Marker Database (note that there seems to be an error in this description. It says the he was “Chairman – Army and Navy Department of the International Commission from 1910 to 1907“. This is clearly wrong. Moreover, it couldn’t be 1910-1927 because he died in 1922. So I’ve changed it to 1910-1917).
Young Men’s Christian Association of the City of New York
Erected in memory of William Sloane
to serve young men – especially our soldiers and sailors for whom he gave his life in unselfish devotion
Chairman – National War Work Council of the Young Men’s Christian Association from 1917-1920
Born 1873
Vice-Chairman International Commission from 1920 to 1919
Chairman – Army and Navy Department of the International Commission from 1910 to 1917
Died 1922
Sloane was also inducted into the National YMCA Hall of Fame where his entry reads:
William S. Sloane (1873-1922). William Sloane was President of the National War Work Council, which was formed in 1917 and raised and managed hundreds of millions of dollars to support YMCA initiatives to serve American and Allied troops during World War I. During the war, he was one of the “dollar-a-year-men”, who put aside their own personal gain and fortune to put their vast experience earned in the private sector to work at hugely expanding the outreach of the YMCA. The contributions of the YMCA during the war were amazingly extensive and impressive, involving the construction and operation of thousands of centers for service personnel, support for U.S. YMCA’ serving the military, mobilizing well-known entertainers for service abroad, and literally hundreds of other programs and services that employed more than 25,000 YMCA workers. In 1930, Sloane House, a New York YMCA residence for servicemen, was opened in his honor.
Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II