Historic Bronzeville YMCA receives $436K grant to restore landmark building

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A cultural institution in Chicago just received a grant from the National Park Service to restore its landmark building.

But, the Bronzeville YMCA, on the National Register of Historic Places, is important not just to Black history in Chicago, but to the history and culture of the United States as a whole.

"Mind, Body, Spirit," the 1936 mural by famed Harlem renaissance artist William Eduard Scott, is inside the historic Wabash YMCA.

Patricia Abrams is the outgoing executive director of the Renaissance Collaborative, which saved the historic Wabash Y from destruction in the early 1990s. She says it's more than part of the fabric of Bronzeville and Black history. It was a national beacon during the Great Migration, the birthplace of Black History Month.

"Depicted the various professions that African Americans could have if they came here from the South, because the South was brutal," Abrams said. "We need to always remind people of the history of this place."

But now, the mural is cracked and stained. The basketball court used by the original Harlem globetrotters is closed, and the pool where so many learned to swim has been shuttered. That could soon change.

Incoming executive director at the historic Bronzeville YMCA, Oji Eggleston, says the Renaissance Collaborative just received a $436,000 grant from the National Park Service to restore the mural, pool and basketball court.

"You have to have a counter to the powers that be that are trying to whitewash African American history," Eggleston said. "It's also important to use spaces like this as the next narrative going forward."

That's a narrative that continues with the Renaissance Collaborative's soon-to-be renovated 101 units of affordable housing, and a new development with a purpose.

Abram's legacy outside of the Wabash Y is a new multi-generational housing complex at 53rd and Calumet for teens experiencing homelessness, and seniors who need it.

"'Can you live the missions?' And like I always tell people, I've been here for 30-some years but for me, I look at it as a ministry. I don't look at it as a job," Abrams said.