This is site 4 & 5 of 35 Next "BB" Site Return to beginning of Back Bay
		BB4: Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) 140 Clarendon Street The Boston Young Women's Christian Association, the first in the nation, was founded in 1866 by upper middle-class Protestant women. Led by Pauline Durant (1832-1917) until 1905, the YWCA hoped to guide and guard the young rural women coming to the city to work. The YWCA provided them with lodging and employment assistance. By the early 20th century, the YWCA had added a School of Domestic Science and a popular gymnasium. The young women whom they served began to take an active role in the organization's management and established a busy club program. Confronting racism in the 1930s and 1940s, the YWCA integrated its branches and named Lucy Miller Mitchell as the first board member of color in 1941. Mitchell, who became executive director of Associated Day Care Services of Metropolitan Boston, was a local and national pioneer in the development of standards for child care. The YWCA on Clarendon Street, with its popular swimming pool and increased residential facilities, was constructed in 1929. It is now named for Melnea Cass (1896-1978), a leader in increasing educational and occupational opportunities for African Americans. Known as "The First Lady of Roxbury," she was also a tireless activist for civil rights and a pioneer in the day care movement. The YWCA supports training for non-traditional careers and runs a child care center. It also operates a transitional housing space and job training at Aswalos House in Dorchester. Most recently, in 1998, it participated in opening the nation's first public housing facility for "grand families" - families consisting of grandparents raising their granchildren.
		BB5: Sarah Wyman Whitman Window Trinity Church Parish House, Copley Square Artist Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904) designed the stained glass window in the Trinity Church Parish House to commemorate the life of the Reverend Phillips Brooks, first rector of the church. A devoted member of the church, Whitman taught Sunday Bible classes for women for thirty years. Upon the death of Brooks in 1893, Whitman and her class campaigned for three years before she was allowed to create the window. A stained glass window across from Whitman's window is dedicated to her memory. In addition to fabricating stained glass, Whitman painted landscapes, flowers, and portraits and designed more than 200 book covers for the Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin.