Here the work grew marvellously. It has branched out in many important directions. It has supported men in India; it has sent out men to South Africa during the Boer war; it has added to its membership and activities and its recent triumph, when it raised over $200,000 for the further extension of the work in the new and enlarged building, is within recent memory.
The new home on Drummond Street was entered on August 1, 1912, and was formally opened in September.
From the little Baptist Church on St. Helen Street to the palatial home of the association is a long step, but it is an answer to the demand for this sort of service on behalf of the young in our city.
THE MONTREAL YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
The Montreal Young Women’s Christian Association was organized and incorporated in 1874 under the presidency of Mrs. P.D. Brown, its central idea being that of helpfulness—physical, moral, and spiritual—for industrial women.
Its first purpose was to provide a boarding home which should be in no sense a charity, where young business women and students might find a safe home free from the numerous temptations which beset the young woman in the city. This part of the work has only been limited by the size of the building; today about eighty-five young women are housed in the association building, and fifty in an annex which was opened in 1908. Early in 1914 another building, to accommodate fifty more, was opened.
Its second purpose was to provide an employment bureau where suitable work was found for the stranger.
Some of the activities of the association may now be mentioned.
In 1880, the necessity for a diet kitchen was felt, and in the basement of the American Presbyterian Church, under the wing of the Young Women’s Christian Association, one was opened. Here the ladies themselves prepared suitable articles for diet for invalids, the food dispensed only to applicants provided with a card from clergy or the medical profession. In a few years this work became so necessary that it separated from the Young Women’s Christian Association and carried on its good work alone.