Downtown YMCA

Historic Site

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Shreveport

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Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 29, 2025

1. Downtown YMCA Marker

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by National Register Staff, Baton Rouge, LA, 3/1991:
The Downtown Shreveport YMCA (1925) is a four story, blond brick and cast concrete institutional building in the Italian Renaissance style. The YMCA is of local significance in the area of architecture as a special component of Shreveport's important and impressive collection of early twentieth century eclectic revival buildings. Louisiana's third largest city was founded in the 1830s, but the architectural patrimony for which Shreveport is primarily recognized dates to

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 29, 2025

2. Downtown YMCA Marker

Looking south along Mc Neil Street. The marker is located along the sidewalk near the northeast corner of the building.

the oil boom of the early twentieth century. A major element of this heritage is approximately thirty landmarks reflecting the eclectic revival styles of the time. During this period of explosive growth, numerous major buildings were erected in a variety of historic styles ranging from neo-Georgian to Jacobean to Italian Renaissance.
These buildings establish Shreveport as Louisiana's most important center of eclecticism, with the possible exception of New Orleans. The downtown YMCA is one of these, being part of a collection of five buildings designed in an Italian style. Among these, it is conspicuous because of its distinctive rooftop twin campanile articulation.

Excerpt:  The YMCA first started as a group in Shreveport in the 1860s but did not formally incorporate until 1922. The next year, the group raised $545,000 (equivalent to $10,058,018 in 2024) to build this building which opened in 1925. Monroe E. Dodd, the First Baptist Church pastor and Edward Jacobs, the National Bank of Shreveport founder, both strongly advocated for the project.
In the 1960s, the YMCA added a third and fourth story for new bedrooms and converted the old residences on the second story into exercise rooms. The group stopped renting

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 29, 2025

3. Downtown YMCA Entrance

The main entrance is near the center of the building, facing McNeil Street.
From the National Register Nomination:  The ground story culminates in a triple arch entrance which, in true early Renaissance fashion, has the arches springing directly from the Corinthian column capitals. The entrance door has a patera surround and a fully round segmental pediment featuring the YMCA emblem. Of great visual interest is the gold and blue terra cotta used on bas relief urn panels on the front doorway, and blocks on the triple arch arcade bearing the initials YMCA.

the rooms though and the floors are now vacant. In 2017, barrels of food from 1963 were found in an unused wing of the building, left over from Cold War Civil Defense preparations. In recent years, the facility attracts downtown office workers to work out and provides exercise classes. The YMCA renovated the building in 2020.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 29, 2025

4. National Register of Historic Places Marker

(mounted at eye-level on right side of main entrance)

This property has been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
by the United States Department of the Interior

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 29, 2025

5. Downtown YMCA (north elevation)

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 29, 2025

6. Downtown YMCA (northeast elevation)

From the National Register Nomination:  The exterior design appears to have been inspired, at least remotely, by the Villa Medici in Rome which was begun in 1574. This can be seen mainly in the rather unusual use of twin rooftop campaniles flanking the three central bays of the building. Like those at the villa, the YMCA campaniles feature a central arched opening flanked by pilasters and panels on each elevation. The ground stories of the front and side elevations are articulated with an impressive row of arched openings. Most of these are inscribed double arch windows with central colonnettes. Other noteworthy exterior features include the rooftop balustrade and the use of quoining to set off the various parts.