Our History
A founding member of Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the oldest Boys & Girls Club in New York City, Madison has served the city’s most under-resourced youth since 1884 thanks to the tireless efforts of our staff, the vision of our Board of Directors and the generous support of our public and private partners.
Madison Square Boys & Girls Club was founded in 1884 to provide recreational and vocational programs to keep young people away from gang activity on the east side of Manhattan. Founded in a vacant store on First Avenue and 37th Street and operating as a mission of the Madison Square Church, the Club relocated within the community several times before becoming an organization independent of the church in 1902.
In the early years, trustees took turns opening the Club and supervising recreational and vocational programs, which included crafts, dramatics, sports, lectures and trade classes. The Club operated in a variety of buildings including public schools, private houses and church basements until 1939, when Herbert Hoover, then Chairman of the National Association of Boys Clubs, opened our first youth-dedicated facility at 29th Street in Manhattan.
Although girls participated in Club programs from the organization’s beginning, their involvement was limited, and Madison’s trustees were instrumental in founding the Girls Club of New York in recognition of the need for girls’ programs. In 1984, the Clubs were officially opened to all young people, and the organization was renamed the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club.
Today the Club builds on more than a century of effective youth development in New York City’s most under-resourced communities and provides life-changing programs to thousands of young people each year.
Key events
1884: Madison is founded to provide services to youth on the east side of Manhattan
1902: Madison becomes an independent organization
1939: Madison opens its first Clubhouse on 29th Street
1954: Madison helps establish Boys Club of Queens
1958: Madison opens the Freeman Street Boys Club in the Bronx
1964: Ground is broken for a second Bronx Club, the Columbus Clubhouse, marking a ten-year period of organizational expansion
1967: A fire that damaged the Freeman Street Boys Club leads to construction of a Clubhouse on Hoe Avenue in the Bronx, now the Joel E. Smilow Clubhouse
1981: Madison acquires the Navy Yard Boys Club in Brooklyn
1984: Madison changes its name to reflect the increased female participation in Club programs and becomes Madison Square Boys & Girls Club
1989: Madison re-opens the doors of the Flatbush Boys Club in Brooklyn, now the Thomas S. Murphy Clubhouse
2019: Madison opens brand-new Pinkerton Clubhouse in Harlem
2019: Madison partners with Frederick Douglass Academy VII High School / Teachers Preparatory High School to open Elbaum Family Clubhouse
Today: Madison provides life-changing programming to thousands of New York City’s most under-resourced youth each year
“They teach me to be a gentleman.”