A coalition of community leaders will hold a press conference this Wednesday outside the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley to announce the start of a process to preserve the former West Federal Street Branch of the YMCA of Youngstown, now owned and operated by the Rescue Mission.  

The Rescue Mission will vacate the building located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard next year to move into a new facility currently under construction.

The local coalition is, "Working to raise awareness, build support, and develop a viable plan for the community to save, restore, and reuse the West Federal Y," according to coalition member Penny Wells.

"The site must continue to serve the community, speak of the people who built it, and connect the history of race relations and cultural development in Youngstown to current and future generations, a goal that is vital given the current state of race relations in our country."

The Ohio State Historic Preservation Office in Columbus will be contacted to nominate the building to the National Register.

The Youngstown YMCA opened the West Federal building, a branch that became known as "the Black Y," in 1931, as part of a million-dollar capital improvement fundraising drive to which more than 100 local businesses and individuals pledged. 

Simeon S. Booker, Sr. the first Executive Secretary of the West Federal branch was hired to complete fundraising and to manage the new facility. 

The YMCA applied for and received a $25,000 Julius Rosenwald Fund grant for the new building, one of only 24 facilities catering to African-Americans nationwide to receive support from the Jewish Sears-Roebuck department store and catalog. 

Youngstown architects Barton E. Brooke and Harold R. Dyer designed the Tudor gothic style building.

For 43 years, the West Federal Y was a community center for African-Americans in the city. 

The YMCA of Youngstown closed the West Federal Branch in 1974, and merged its programs with the downtown Central YMCA.

Soon after, the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley purchased the building for one dollar, and has operated it as a shelter and food service center ever since.