[1] Two years later, when the Downtown Albany Historic District was designated and listed on the Register, YMCA building was further included as a contributing property.

At the time of its construction, it had the first gymnasium in upstate New York, and one of the earliest indoor swimming pools in the country.

The surrounding neighborhood is densely developed with tall brick commercial buildings of a similar vintage and scale such as the Kenmore Hotel.

On the second story are rectangular one-over-one double-hung sash windows with transoms above set in a pair of doubles on the east and two groups of three on either side of the entryway rising from a brownstone belt course at sill level.

[2] Foliation similar to the archway also girdles the lower section of the turret, which begins to rise in brownstone below the cornice that divides brick and stone.

Above it on the east facade is a plain brownstone frieze with "Young Men's Christian Association" carved into it.

Its five stories are faced in gauged decorative brickwork with segmental-arched keystoned window surrounds of rough-cut stone.

[2] Inside there have been many alterations and modifications over the years, as well as fire and water damage, and much original finish has been lost, particularly in the annexed building at 64 Pearl.

It used other properties for its programming until James Jermain donated $50,000 ($1.7 million in modern dollars[3]) to go toward the construction of a new building.

[2] Local architects Fuller & Wheeler collaborated on a Romanesque Revival design that has been seen as exemplifying that style as applied to a densely developed urban site.

In 1892, it was home to an important event in the history of basketball: the sport's first game played away from Springfield College in Massachusetts, where it had been invented in 1890 by James Naismith.