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YWCA sells Franklin St. building for $1.5M
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The YWCA of Greater Baltimore, unwinding its city operations, has sold its historic downtown headquarters building to another women’s nonprofit.
Casey Harden, CEO of the organization, said Wednesday that the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women had paid $1.5 million for the 70,000-square-foot building at 128 W. Franklin St.
“It’s kind of a passing of the torch along to another women’s organization, so it’s a good thing. But it was a hard decision for our board,” Harden said. “For almost a century, within the walls of this building has been the work of women.”
Begun in 1914, the unassuming historic building was funded entirely through the work of women from the YWCA. When it opened in 1917, the building had an auditorium, a swimming pool and a gym, and for 93 years was the site of women’s empowerment and anti-racism programming, as well as a shelter for homeless women.
In 2007, the YWCA shut down a women’s shelter that was in the building, and since then the headquarters has housed only the organization’s administrative offices and pro bono space for nonprofits. YWCA still operates a day care service serving 100 West Baltimore families and a transitional housing program in the city, as well as various services in Baltimore, Harford and Anne Arundel counties.
Baltimore Leadership School plans to renovate the structure as an all-girls public secondary school focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. The college-prep style school, based on New York’s Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem, will open next September with 220 6th- and 7th-graders, according to a news release. The Baltimore Leadership School currently has one location, on Falls Road in Roland Park.
“I am so excited about the new location. The historic significance of the property related to women’s history is amazing, a great location, and wonderful opportunity for our girls,” Sylvia Fulwood-Paylor, a Baltimore Leadership School parent, said in a prepared statement.
