A project at the Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor) gym has opened the door to revisiting history involving a window. Judy Pickens shares the story:

Anyone who’s played basketball at the Fauntleroy YMCA knows that a forceful throw could cause noticeable movement of the west wall of the gym. Now that structural weakness is being rectified through a joint project of the Y and Fauntleroy Church. (In the top photo, the boarded-up window framing is visible behind scaffolding as Potter Construction works to reinforce the west wall of the Fauntleroy gym.)

Large windows to let in natural light seemed like a good idea in 1914 when the community built the wood-frame facility to provide young people a place for sports, meetings, and manual training. This illustration showing the fully exposed windows appeared in a 1944 edition of the “Little Brown Church News” to keep service members from Fauntleroy up to date on local basketball activity.

The windows stayed until 1950, when more stability was needed for the building’s move to its present location to make way for a new sanctuary.

Full use of the gym is expected to resume by June 1.

(Image credits: Top photo by Monika Lindman; other two, from Fauntleroy Church archives.)