By Bob Yearick
Today, Enid Wallace-Haley is a community leader, philanthropist, and the first African American woman to chair the YMCA of Delaware’s statewide board.
But back in the early 1960s she was a teenage student in the etiquette class offered at Wilmington’s Walnut Street YMCA. There, she learned which knife, fork, and spoon to use at a formal dinner, and, more memorably, the proper way for a lady to enter an automobile.
She says the instructor — “very prim and proper” — took the class outside to her car, opened the passenger-side door, and delivered a not-to-be-forgotten lesson: “Back up, put your booty in first, then swing your legs around.”
In addition to learning the delicate steps of correct car entry and exit, young Enid Wallace took tap, ballet, and interpretive dance classes every Saturday for 25 cents per lesson. And, like hundreds of other Black Wilmington teens, she learned to swim in Walnut Street’s indoor pool.
Indeed, beginning with its founding in 1940 — made possible by the largesse of philanthropist H. Fletcher Brown and his wife, Florence Hammett Brown — and continuing through the next three decades, the Walnut Street Y became the de facto center of African American culture in Wilmington. Segregation was a Delaware reality throughout the 1940s, ‘50s and into the ‘60s, and places like Woolworth’s lunch counter and the Central YMCA were off-limits to Blacks, so, except for schools and churches, the building at the corner of Walnut and East 10th Street was one of the limited public recreational/cultural spaces open to them.
Both youth and adults benefited from Walnut’s extensive programs and facilities, which included an indoor swimming pool, basement bowling alley, auditorium, cafeteria, library, gymnasium, workshop, game room, meeting rooms, and dormitories.
During the summer, boys might spend all day there, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., taking classes in gymnastics, golf, art, drama, or playing basketball and chess. Some earned money working as “pin boys” in the bowling alley. They were fueled by the Y cafeteria’s legendary five-cent buttered toast, whose aroma wafted through the neighborhood.
The building was enhanced by art and history. Inside were paintings by noted local African American artist Edward Loper Sr. and others. Outside were friezes that paid homage to such luminaries as Marion Anderson, Booker T. Washington, Paul Robeson, and George Washington Carver, and the illuminated clock tower became a beacon for the community.
85 Years of Impact
Last October 25, Walnut Street celebrated its rich history with an 85th anniversary gala at the Chase Center on the Riverfront. It was an evening filled with stories, music, and reflection where five community leaders received lifetime achievement awards. In addition to Wallace-Haley, the honorees were:
• Former Mayor James H. Sills Jr. — Wilmington’s first Black mayor and lifelong advocate for public service and opportunity.
• State Rep. Stephanie T. Bolden — Champion for Wilmington’s East Side and tireless promoter of unity and education.
• Claire Lamar Carey — Trailblazing chemist, educator, and former director of the YMCA Black Achievers program.
• Harmon R. Carey — Founder of the Afro-American Historical Society and steadfast advocate for preserving Black history.
The honorees reflected on how the Walnut Y had changed their lives, and in turn helped shape Wilmington itself.
Walnut Street was a constant in the life of Jim Sills, Wilmington’s first Black mayor. In 1959, when the native of South Carolina moved here with his wife, he was directed to the Walnut Y, where the staff advised him on housing and helped him establish his eventual deep network in the community.
Throughout his six decades of public service, Sills made the Y a focal point for community meetings and special events, and it was there that he kicked off his mayoral campaign and held his victory party after being elected in 1992.
(Sills is experiencing some health issues and was not available to comment for this story.)
Like Wallace-Haley, Stephanie Bolden remembers the dance lessons at Walnut Street. A native of the East Side, she lost her mother when she was 5. “My dad enrolled me in classes when I was 7 or 8,” she says.
In 2010, Bolden was elected to represent District 2 in the Delaware State Assembly, and she is now the longest serving, elected African American woman in the state of Delaware. The dance lessons proved transformative, giving her an awareness of what she could become.
“On TV and in the movies, you would see Shriley Temple dancing, so these were things that you didn’t feel you would be able to reach,” Bolden says, “but the lessons made you feel more a part of the community, of society.”
‘We Never Knew We Were Poor’
The Y was the place to be for teens on the East Side. In addition to swimming, bowling, and playing basketball, Bolden and her friends learned line dances like the Madison and the Continental. After Thursday night “L Trot”, they crossed the street — where Colonial Parking now stands — to The Blue Goose diner for hamburgers and Cokes.
Most Walnut memberships were paid or subsidized, and volunteers conducted a rigorous membership campaign to raise funds, giving kids from the East Side a taste of the life enjoyed by youth in more prosperous neighborhoods. As a result, says Bolden, “We never knew we were poor.”
Claire Lamar Carey, the first Black woman chemist at Hercules Inc., moved to Wilmington from Augusta, Ga., in 1965 in the midst of the fair housing crisis. She lived at the YWCA on West 10th Street, but also became familiar with the Walnut Street Y.
“We used the auditorium and gym for our Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. sorority meetings and activities,” says Carey, “and I pretty much immersed myself in Walnut Street.”
While volunteering as a girls’ basketball coach, she met Harmon R. Carey, who was director of the People’s Settlement. They married and had a son, Roderick, who is now a professor at the University of Delaware.
Long before he became Dr. Carey, young Roderick was enrolled in Walnut Street’s after-care program. When his mother went to pick him up after work, she got a sense of the many activities offered there.
“I remember going from room to room looking for him,” she says. “He might be in the basement in the bowling alley, or in the computer room, or in the gym.”
When she retired from Hercules after 65 years, Carey was persuaded to become leader of the Black Achievers Program of the Delaware YMCA. The program pairs high school youth with successful adult achievers who serve as mentors and roles models to “help instill values of caring and pride.” She led the program for 15 years, and more than 400 of her students went on to degrees in higher education.
‘For The Elite’
Carey’s husband and fellow honoree, Harmon R. Carey, remembers joining Walnut Street in 1946, at the age of 10. “The Y actually reached out to us,” he says. “One of the staff came down to the lower East Side and found us playing in the street, and he asked if we were interested in joining Walnut Street.”
That had never occurred to Carey and his friends. “We thought the Y was for people with means, for the elite,” he says. “We never went up there.”
He not only joined, but years later, after graduating from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, Carey became a Y recruiter himself. “We had teams that competed against each other to get memberships,” he says, adding, “Our team usually won.”
A former longtime radio host on Wilmington radio station WILM, and now on his own station — WHGE 95.3 FM — Carey has always focused on issues related to the Black community and the city, and particularly the history of the East Side, which he calls “the most historic area of Wilmington.” That was one reason why, in 1998, when the original Walnut Street Y was demolished to build a new structure on the same spot, he advocated for retaining the clock tower and the relief friezes.
“I’m concerned that our history is being neglected,” he says. “And people who know that history — old folks like me — are going to be gone.”
Preserving The History
Jeanne D. Nutter agrees. An oral historian, teacher, speaker, and long-time Delaware resident, Nutter had authored two books, Delaware (Black America Series), and Growing Up Black in New Castle County, before the 2024 publication of Walnut Street YMCA and YWCA (Images of America), a book that drew on her childhood experiences at Walnut Street.
Last month, Nutter also completed a documentary, Walnut Street YMCA: Passport to Possibilities, which will be presented at the Chase Center on the Riverfront on Thursday, February 19 (details below).
Both the book and the documentary were labors of love for Nutter. “I took ballet and learned to swim at Walnut Street, my dad was on the board there, and I went to mother-daughter banquets there,” she says. “It was the heartbeat of the Black community, and its story needed to be captured while those people are still with us.”
In completing the book and documentary, Nutter worked closely with Anesha Law, community executive director of Walnut Street for the past three years. Law, who says she “was so honored to participate” in the 85th anniversary celebration, along with her staff are building upon the rich history of their workplace.
“With financial assistance available, we’ve been able to increase our enrichment programs, increase the number of kids in our teen program, and get out more in the community,” she says. “We want to continue giving back to the community, let neighbors know we’re here, and offer a safe space where every child can learn, grow, and thrive.”
Above: Lifetime Achievement Award winners (from left:) Harmon R. Carey, Claire Lamar Carey, Enid Wallace-Haley, State Rep. Stephanie T. Boulden, Mayor James H. Sills Jr. Photo courtesy YMCA of Delaware
The copy editor of Out & About, Bob Yearick retired from DuPont in 2000 after 34 years as an editor and writer. Since “retiring,” Bob has written articles for Delaware Today, Main Line Today and other publications. His sports/suspense novel, Sawyer, was published in 2007. His grammar column, “The War on Words,” is one of the most popular features in O&A. A compilation of the columns was published in 2011. He has won the Out & About short story contest as well as many awards in the annual Delaware Press Association writing contest.