Keeneland, Investing in Racing's Future since 1936.
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KEENELAND.COM K SUMMER 2016 75 A Lexington YMCA exercise class, circa 1908 An early YMCA stood on Church Street in downtown Lexington. W hen David Martorano was hired three years ago as president and CEO of the YMCA of Central Kentucky, one of his frst jobs was to revive the nonproft organization's plans to build a new Y in the Hamburg area of Lexington. Any doubts he may have had about Lexington's enthusiasm for the project were quickly erased by meetings he had with two people — for - mer Keeneland Association chairman James E. "Ted" Bassett III and Bry- an Raisor, managing director of Assured Partners NL. Bassett had served as the honorary chairman of the 2004-05 steering committee for the Hamburg YMCA, but a few years in, the project was shelved because of the economic downturn. Martorano met with Bassett at Keeneland to talk about the Hamburg Y, and as he took his leave, Bassett handed him an apple. "He said, 'I want you to help the health of this community. This is to remind you to get this project done,' " said Martorano. Raisor too, was concerned about his community, more specifcally, the growing Hamburg area east of downtown Lexington where he and his family live. Hamburg had just about everything a neighborhood needs — grocery stores and gas stations, restaurants and retail stores, banks and churches. What it lacked, Raisor believed, was a unifying force, a central gathering place. "I had lived out in Hamburg about eight years, and I kept hearing about a Y coming to this side of town," he said. "I thought, 'We need something like that to build up the sense of community.'" He called Martorano. "I told him 'I want to fnd out how I can be - come the Hamburg Y's frst member. How can I help get this out of the ground?'" Martorano admired Raisor's moxie and asked him to serve on the YMCA association board and later, as the Hamburg project was revived, to chair its managing board. Come this fall, when the 62,000-square-foot Hamburg Place YMCA opens at 2681 Old Rosebud Road a few blocks off Sir Barton Way, Rai - sor and Bassett will see their wishes for Lexington's fastest-growing area come true. "The Hamburg Y is really going to unite the com - munity and be a focal point," said Raisor. A longstanding Lexington institution The YMCA has been in the business of building and im - proving the Lexington commu- nity since 1853, 44 years before horseman John Madden estab - lished his Hamburg Place Farm and turned out champion Thor - oughbreds on the land where the Hamburg Place Y is being built. The YMCA of those days was far different from those of today. Like the original YMCAs founded in England, early YMCAs in the United States were designed to help young men who had moved to the city from rural areas lead purposeful, healthful lives. The organization lived up to its acronym. Those it served were young, Christian, and men. Lexington had a reputation for progressiveness, and that was fur - ther evidenced when it established its YMCA system just two years after the frst YMCA in the United States opened in Boston in 1851. "The Lexington Y system is one of the earliest in the country, the 18th established in North America," said David Elsen, execu - tive director of Lexington's High Street YMCA. The organization frst held its meetings at First Presbyterian Church, then located at Second and Broadway. It would move to several buildings throughout downtown before the frst pur - pose-built YMCA was constructed in 1904 at Market and Church streets. That building is now home to LexArts. More than a half-century later a larger, more modern YMCA, with an indoor pool, a gymnasium, exercise facilities and offces would be built, in stag - es over fve years, on High Street near Rose Street. Two new YMCAs open in one year For the next four decades the High Street YMCA was the heart of Lexington's Y system. Other branch - es would come and go — for a time, there was a Y on Maryland Avenue and another next to the Lexington Ice Center near Richmond and Mount Tabor roads — UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY PHOTO ARCHIVE COURTESY OF YMCA