The Erie Downtown YMCA was much smaller than the current one on 10th and Peach St. This old picture was taken around 1903. The Y.M.C.A. was on the same corner, but with a much smaller footprint, and it had a small area where kids could play in the grass just west of the building at 31 West 10th Street.
The stately house on the left, at 23 West 10th St., was used by Dr. Thomas H. Gray as his office from 1873 until about 1904. Dr. Gray was born in Erie Co., PA in 1841. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1871 and married Anna Kelso the following year. This Richardsonian Romanesque house was later used for business purposes, and was home of the New Willard Hotel and Cafeteria in 1922. It was demolished in 1924 to make way for the Erie Lighting Company Building.
The building to the right of the YMCA, on Peach Street, was attached to the YMCA and housed the pool and the gymnasium. This was where Johnny Weissmuller swam in 1915. James C. Ainsworth (as in Ainsworth Field) was the director of the YMCA for many years.
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Olympic gold medalist Johnny Weissmuller visited Erie, Pa on December 15, 1915 as a guest of YMCA director James C. Ainsworth.
If the name Johnny Weissmuller doesn't ring a bell, it should. He was the star of a dozen Tarzan movies, starting with 'Tarzan the Ape Man' in 1932. He then played Jungle Jim in a series of movies (and later a TV series) during the forties and fifties.
Johnny got his start as a freestyle swimmer, winning five gold medals in the Olympics, three in 1924 and two in 1928. He also set 67 world records.
Johnny appeared at the Downtown Y on West 10th Street. "The largest audience ever to witness a swimming exhibition in this city jammed its way into the limited capacity of the Y.M.C.A. tank last night and was amply rewarded...The biggest upset of the program, however, was Bill Wright's triumph over Johnny Weismuller, world's champion swimmer, in a special 40-yard race...It was this same Wright that finished second to him last year in the Olympic trials that saw the Erie boy disqualified. -Erie Dispatch-Herald, December 16, 1925.
The 'Erie boy' that Weissmuller competed against was William Wright.
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