Coimbatore YMCA’s 110-year-old main building gets a facelift

Explore the rich history and renovation of the 110-year-old YMCA building in Coimbatore, preserving its legacy for future generations.

Our footsteps echo off the walls in the first floor of the main building at Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) campus. It is spanking new, and yet, retains the charm of its previous life: such as the large wooden windows above which stand rectangular transom windows. The building is 110 years old, and was the first one to come up in the campus of the YMCA on Head Post Office Road. It has now been renovated in tune with the architecture of the original. 

The YMCA campus is known for its basketball court and gym that many people in the city frequent. “It is here that the city’s first tennis court came up,” says Joseph Ratnam, a board member, adding that many Britishers and the city’s mill-owners would frequent the courts, that are still in good condition. The main building, according to the association’s president E Jeyakumar David, is spread across 4,000 sqft inside the 2.87-acre campus.

“Since it is over a century old, we thought it needed to be maintained,” explains the 70-year-old Ratnam, adding that they felt that by doing so, they were honouring the legacy of their seniors. Thus began the task of renovating the heritage building; all of the members were bent on one thing: that they do not demolish it, and instead, strengthen the structure from the base. 

Ratnam, who worked in the banking sector, takes me around the building, the ground floor of which is home to over 10 rooms that have been rented out to commercial establishments. The YMCA was established in Coimbatore in 1911 by Sir Robert Stanes, and the building’s construction was completed in 1913. The hall, explains Ratnam, has hosted events for children and adults over the years, its walls reverberating with the voices of choir singers young and old.

“It used to be a popular spot for choir rehearsals,” he recalls, adding that several groups from the city would use it to train. “It has seen youth meetings of the YMCA, and in the 70s and 80s, it was also used to stage musicals,” he adds. Their archives have black-and-white photos of their past events with children in charming costumes and strapping basketball players posing with their teams in front of the building.

The original had a tiled roof, a stone staircase and also a wooden flight of stairs. All of these elements had to go though, owing to their condition. The stone sunshade landings that stood over the old parapet are still in place, including the wooden doors and windows. “When we started on the woodwork, we found that the wood in the original was alive and breathing, and hence retained it after giving it a good polishing,” points out Ratnam. The hall on the first floor, he says, will now be rented out for events that conform to the ethics of the YMCA.

The small rooms at the ground floor still have the wooden rafters on the roofs, reminders of the building’s older times. After a brief stroll, we stop at a corner on the first floor, from where we get a good view of the campus’s defining aspects: the tennis courts, gym, and the basketball court. For the members, this building carries several memories that they hope to preserve for years to come.