engineering

Twelfth Street YMCA Building

Twelfth Street YMCA Building is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Twelfth Street YMCA Building rather than just read about it. In short: Twelfth Street YMCA Building, also known as Anthony Bowen YMCA, was home to the first African American chapter of YMCA, founded in 1853 by Anthony Bowen. It is located at 1816 12th Street NW in the U Street Corridor (Cardozo/Shaw) neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Key takeaways

Twelfth Street YMCA Building belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Twelfth Street YMCA Building to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Twelfth Street YMCA Building from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Twelfth Street YMCA Building, also known as Anthony Bowen YMCA, was home to the first African American chapter of YMCA, founded in 1853 by Anthony Bowen. It is located at 1816 12th Street NW in the U Street Corridor (Cardozo/Shaw) neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The building was reopened on February 20, 2000, as the Thurgood Marshall Center in honor of the first African American Associate Justice to serve on the United States Supreme Court. The Thurgood Marshall Center now serves as a community center for residents of the U Street Corridor and Shaw neighborhoods. The permanent organization of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity was established in the Bowen Room. Completed in 1912, the Renaissance Revival building was designed by William Sidney Pittman, one of the United States' first African American architects and a son-in-law of Booker T. Washington. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994 and is a contributing property to the Greater U Street Historic District.

Description and history The Thurgood Marshall Center is located on the west side of 12th Street NW, between S and T Streets. It is a large rectangular four-story masonry building, built out of red brick with trim of limestone and gray brick. Its main facade is three bays wide, with a center entrance sheltered by a Tuscan portico with entablature, modillioned cornice, and low balustrade above. The ground floor is finished in bands of gray brick arranged to appear as rough stone, while the upper floors are red brick with gray brick corner quoining. Limestone stringcourses serve as a water table between the basement and first floor, between the first and second floors, and above the top floor. The building is crowned by a modillioned and dentillated cornice and a low balustrade. Windows are set in pairs in each bay, with limestone keystones. The international YMCA was founded in Great Britain in 1844, and its first American branch opened in 1851. Anthony Bowen founded the first African-American branch of the organization in 1853 in Washington, one year after a branch for whites was opened in the city. The organization struggled financially in its early years, and was not formally incorporated until 1892. The organization moved into its first permanent home on 11th Street in 1891, which soon after had to be sold due to declining membership. After a membership drive revitalized the organization, it secured a pledge from John D. Rockefeller Sr. for $25,000, which was matched by fundraising from across the nation's African-American community. It is believed to be the first such campaign of its type in that community. This building was completed in 1912 to a design by African-American architect William Sidney Pittman. In 1973 Twelfth Street YMCA was officially renamed Anthony Bowen YMCA in honor of its founder. It closed in 1982, suffering from declining membership and mounting building maintenance costs. Politicians Washington DC Congressional Delegate Walter E Fauntroy and Washington D.C Mayor Marion Barry lead several protest demanding the reopening due to its historical significance. In 1983, the building was nominated as Historic Landmark but not until 1989 that Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy introduced to Congress the bill to designate the Anthony Bowen Landmark Building (formerly the Anthony Bowen Y.M.C.A.) in Washington, the District of Columbia as a national historic site, declaring this historic building National Historic Landmark on October 12, 1994. The restoration of the building started with Walter Fauntroy's plan to improve opportunities for neighborhood youth in the Shaw community. In 1983, in coordination with Real Estate developer George T. Farrell, Walter Fauntroy fully restored the building and adapted it for the use of the community by providing a full service health and recreational facility administered by the YMCA. The renovation spurred increased gentrification of the Shaw community from a low income enclave to a young urban professional locale bringing a surprising change for the current residents. The Antony Bowen YMCA operated as a community recreation center with gymnasium and library until it was again renovated to become the Thurgood Marshall Community Center under direction of the Thurgood Marshal Center Trust, Incorporated.

Notable people John Warren Davis, fifth president of West Virginia State College, served as the executive secretary of the Twelfth Street YMCA from 1917 to 1919.

See also List of National Historic Landmarks in the District of Columbia

References

External links Thurgood Marshall Center

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Twelfth Street YMCA Building

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Twelfth Street YMCA Building claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Twelfth Street YMCA Building before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Twelfth Street YMCA Building ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Twelfth Street YMCA Building

In research: Twelfth Street YMCA Building appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Twelfth Street YMCA Building in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Twelfth Street YMCA Building is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1853 establishments in Washington, D.C., African-American historic places, African-American history of Washington, D.C., so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Twelfth Street YMCA Building outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Twelfth Street YMCA Building in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Twelfth Street YMCA Building means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Twelfth Street YMCA Building out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Twelfth Street YMCA Building in simple terms?

Why does Twelfth Street YMCA Building matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Twelfth Street YMCA Building?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Twelfth Street YMCA Building.