The YMCA and Camp Eberhart

Documented in the city by 1883 — Camp Eberhart founded 1909, on Michigan ground

Footing: A South Bend YMCA stands in Farr's city directory of 1883, and that directory entry is the earliest footing this account can prove. The association's own current boilerplate says it has served South Bend "for more than 100 years," and a May 2024 association release speaks of "the over 140-year legacy of the Y in this region" — regional phrasing, which this account does not convert into a South Bend founding year. The founding year itself is not established in the sources reached; the directory footing of 1883 is what prints.

Camp Eberhart: The camp stands on Corey Lake at Three Rivers, Michigan — Michigan ground, carried in this city's account because the South Bend Y founded it and the association still runs it, the county frame stated plainly. In the summer of 1909 the Y's Boys' Department opened a camp there on a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Eberhart, made in memory of their son Harris, who was killed on 24 July 1909 when the family car stalled on railroad tracks at Munster, Indiana. The St. Joseph County Public Library's camp booklet records the gift as 7,500 dollars and thirteen and a half acres. Eberhart was the first YMCA camp to offer a program for young women, and it became fully coeducational in the 1970s. It has grown to some 200 acres and serves more than 8,200 children and adults a year, in the association's own figures.

The modern association: The South Bend Y spent the twentieth century at 1201 Northside Boulevard, the Riverview Family YMCA. In April 2018 its association, the YMCA of Michiana, entered a management agreement with the YMCA of Southwest Michigan, and on 1 January 2020 the two merged outright as the YMCA of Greater Michiana; the Northside branch became the South Bend–Mishawaka YMCA. Mark Weber is the association's chief executive in its current releases. In the summer of 2024 a Downtown South Bend YMCA opened on the third and fourth floors of the Leighton Healthplex at 111 West Jefferson Boulevard, on a rent-free lease running to 31 December 2032, and the 1201 Northside property was transferred to the city. The O'Brien Center at 321 East Walter Street operates as a partnership between the Y and the city's Venues Parks & Arts department. One of the Y's own works is carried elsewhere in this build: Charles Martin, a South Bend YMCA youth worker from 1970 to 1994, is in Black History and People, where the Charles Martin Youth Center's record stands.

Sources:

1. Farr's South Bend city directory, 1883 — the YMCA footing, the earliest documentation reached.
2. YMCA of Greater Michiana, releases and boilerplate, 2024 — "more than 100 years" in South Bend; "the over 140-year legacy of the Y in this region"; the 2018 management agreement and the merger of 1 January 2020; Camp Eberhart's 8,200 served annually; the Downtown YMCA at the Leighton Healthplex and the lease to 31 December 2032; the Northside transfer.
3. St. Joseph County Public Library, Michiana Memory — the Camp Eberhart booklet: the Eberharts' gift of 7,500 dollars and 13½ acres in memory of Harris Eberhart, killed 24 July 1909; the first season, 1909, under the South Bend YMCA Boys' Department.
4. Camp Eberhart's published histories — the first YMCA camp program for young women; full coeducation in the 1970s; the present 200 acres.