Parlor in the School for Christian Workers Building, c. 1887

In 1891 James Naismith, while a faculty member at the school, invented the game of basketball in the gymnasium of the building. In 1890 the School for Christian Workers separated into two schools which continued to operate out of the same building, the YMCA Training School and the School for Christian Workers. In 1896 the Training School finished the transition to its new location on Alden Street and in 1897 the School for Christian Workers became the Bible Normal College and moved to Hartford, Connecticut. The original building was torn down in 1965 to create a parking lot. In 1995, McDonald’s Corporation bought the land, excavating the original foundation and bricks before building a restaurant on the site. Today, there is a monument commemorating the site as the birthplace of basketball.

Caption on verso of image reads "Parlor in Armory Hill YMCA. Rooms on 2nd Floor of S.C.W. Bldg about 1887". Another photograph of this image exists. To view this photograph click here: http://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15370coll2/id/691

A photograph of the parlor in the original building of the School for Christian Workers, now Springfield College, on the corner of Sherman and State streets, c. 1887. The parlor may have been used by the Armory Hill YMCA, which also rented rooms in the building. The school, built on the corner of State and Sherman streets, was completed in the spring of 1886. The building consisted of a reading room, gymnasium, parlor, a recitation room, an amusement room and fifty sleeping rooms. The Armory Hill YMCA also rented rooms in the building.